When law enforcement in Ottawa began a crackdown against COVID-19 protesters in the Canadian capital on Friday, Ottawa Police Chief said they would “continue to push forward to take control of our streets,” according to The Associated Press.
The cost of taking control of Ottawa’s streets from protesters? Knocking over an elderly woman who was using a walker with a horse, apparently.
If video circulated on social media is any indication, the unidentified woman was one of several caught underhoof as authorities moved against Freedom Convoy protesters as part of an operation that saw over 100 people arrested.
The move is one of numerous outrages we’ve seen since the beginning of the crackdown, which was amplified after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the never-before-used Emergencies Act earlier this week. (Here at The Western Journal, we’ve been documenting the abuses — and we’ll continue to, as long as the crackdown lasts. You can help our mission by subscribing.)
On its official Twitter account, Ottawa Police showed their ranks trying to push protesters back by progressively moving a line of heavily armored “Public Order Police” forward at a slow pace in order to clear the Freedom Convoy protesters:
What you are seeing are Public Order Units in a line formation. Protestors are continuously being told to leave, or they face arrest.
You will see the line slowly moving forward to give people who want to leave the opportunity to do so.
#ottawa #ottnews pic.twitter.com/5hUo9NuuNi— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 18, 2022
This was a considerably less minatory depiction of what was going on than could be seen on one video, which involved mounted officers appearing to trample protesters to get them to move:
WATCH: Close up of peaceful protestors in Ottawa protesting mandates being trampled by the mounted unit.
Yes, this is Canada in 2022. pic.twitter.com/I776GdTIwe
— K2?? (@kiansimone44) February 18, 2022
The officers, according to the Toronto Sun, were from the Toronto Police Mounted Unit. The individuals who were knocked over and apparently trodden on included, by the looks of a screenshot from above, an elderly woman with a mobility device:
Look at what is happening – a person is being trampled by the Canadian Police horse #FreedomConvoy Sources telling me it’s getting far worse. pic.twitter.com/4eDdJIjAy4
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) February 19, 2022
This started a bit of a kerfuffle, as the Canucks might say. Candice Malcolm, founder of conservative Canadian publication True North, noted that two of Ottawa Police’s tweets seemed to refer to a “bicycle” that was “thrown” at a horse. This is one of them:
We hear your concern for people on the ground after the horses dispersed a crowd. Anyone who fell got up and walked away. We’re unaware of any injuries. A bicycle was thrown at the horse further down the line and caused the horse to trip. The horse was uninjured. pic.twitter.com/4AYiw1q3W0
— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 19, 2022
Malcolm noted two things. First, those tweets seem to be connected to the fracas you saw above. Second, if there was a bicycle thrown at the horse, cameras would have caught it:
There were cameras and phones filming everywhere, from every angle. If anyone sees a legit bicycle being thrown at the horses, please share it.
— Candice Malcolm (@CandiceMalcolm) February 19, 2022
Malcolm later noted that if you watch the initial ground-level video, you can see the man with the bicycle on the left of the screen starting at 0:09. At least here, he makes no move to throw the bike:
Thank you Twitter. Here is footage of the real bicycle. Watch for yourself (0:09 on). Doesn’t look like anything was thrown, or came close to the horses, from my perspective. pic.twitter.com/OYmtRLuXa5
— Candice Malcolm (@CandiceMalcolm) February 19, 2022
Furthermore, several other videos show the woman being knocked down by Canadian police in more graphic fashion. In one, it’s clear the police move in just after the crowd-dispersal horses ran over the woman, without stopping to give her aid first:
WARNING: The following videos contain graphic language and violence that some viewers will find offensive.
This is disturbing. Is the woman with the walker trampled by Mounted Unit horses alive? Is she in surgery? Has @SIUOntario been notified? Do you have any concerns or comment @OttawaPolice @JustinTrudeau @fordnation @JimWatsonOttawa – Why? pic.twitter.com/X251vZiIaq
— Joe Warmington (@joe_warmington) February 18, 2022
Another camera angle of the incident shows the elderly woman trampled by police horse in Ottawa.pic.twitter.com/xrK4s5JHoX
— Daniel James Dulhunty (@dulhunty) February 19, 2022
Malcolm’s reporting was the most thorough, even if it relied on reports that weren’t fully substantiated. However, True North is generally reliable in these matters and they reported the woman in question was “an elderly First Nations woman who had pleaded that the protest was peaceful.”
She was apparently under the misapprehension that peaceful protests about COVID-19 policies are treated in the same manner as “fiery but mostly peaceful” protests touched off by outrages of a leftist bent.
I shouldn’t have said thugs. But it was totally reckless.
— Candice Malcolm (@CandiceMalcolm) February 19, 2022
True North’s Friday reporting noted the woman’s “condition in hospital is unknown at this time.”
Malcolm did find a Facebook report from a woman claiming to be related to the victim, who said she was all right but for a sore shoulder. This, again, couldn’t be substantiated.
I’ve been making calls trying to confirm a report circulating that the woman trampled by a police horse had died. Someone sent this to me. I’m still working to independently verify this, but I hope and pray that this accurate and the woman is okay. pic.twitter.com/B3qaT7YQKD
— Candice Malcolm (@CandiceMalcolm) February 19, 2022
According to The New York Times, demonstrations that “go beyond lawful protest” can be quashed under the broad powers of the Emergency Act, but Trudeau’s government offered assurances “fundamental rights” cannot be abrogated under the law.
The Times also tried to link Trudeau’s repression of the protests with one of his father’s most daring moves as prime minister.
“Mr. Trudeau’s extraordinary response brought back memories of October 1970 and a tumultuous period known as the October Crisis, when Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau — Justin Trudeau’s father — quashed a wave of terrorism by a violent Quebec separatist group by invoking the War Measures Act, and then sending in troops to Montreal,” they reported. “It was the only time in Canadian history that the war act was applied in peacetime.”
Never mind the fact that any comparison between Pierre Eliot Trudeau and his progeny brings to mind Sen. Lloyd Bentsen’s legendary quip in the 1988 vice presidential debate after Dan Quayle compared himself to JFK: “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” The apple didn’t just fall far from the tree in this case; it feels like it was actively chucked halfway across the orchard.
The October Crisis that caused Pierre Eliot Trudeau to invoke the war act involved terrorist Quebecois separatist groups which specialized in bombings, kidnappings and assassinations. One of its leaders once bragged that “we are going to win because there are more boys ready to shoot members of Parliament than there are policeman.”
Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, dealt with peaceful truckers who blocked streets and border crossing access points to call attention to a government unwilling even to speak with groups that opposed — gasp! — vaccine mandates and passports.
When Pierre Eliot Trudeau was asked where he would draw the line in going after the Quebecois terrorist groups, he had a three-word response that went down in posterity: “Just watch me.”
His son, meanwhile, will be remembered for a less-flattering line on why he needed to crack down on the Freedom Convoy and others protesting COVID-19 policy: “I can understand frustrations with mandates, but mandates are the way to avoid further restrictions.”
Trudeau: “I can understand frustrations with mandates, but mandates are the way to avoid further restrictions” pic.twitter.com/wwsm0U3X3q
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 8, 2022
And while cell phones weren’t around in 1970, when the October Crisis unfolded, it’s safe to say old ladies with mobility devices weren’t trampled by horses to restore order.
This is the cost of Justin Trudeau’s policies and his willingness to enforce them. If an elderly lady gets in the way, well, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few helpless citizens.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
