Over the last week, our downtown residents have been under siege.
The noise and intimidation have increasingly impacted residents and local businesses. Livability in the core has been greatly impacted. Residents are hostages in their own homes and face constant intimidation when trying to leave.
As your local Councillor, I continue to request the highest level of attention to relieve the pressure and risks of this unruly protest affecting our community.
Enough is enough. It is not okay that our City is being occupied by aggressors who are running rampant, threatening the lives and well-being of our residents.
This behaviour has harmed our City while targeting our marginalized communities. It has caused irreparable economic damage for minimum wage employees and business owners who have missed out on this critical week of business—particularly damning during a pandemic. On a week where many businesses were excited to reopen their doors and welcome patrons, they have been forced to closed.
I am asking provincial and federal officials to stop waiting and to work with the City of Ottawa to ensure every resource available at our collective disposal to end this situation peacefully and quickly. We need Federal and Provincial enforcement agencies to work with Ottawa Police Service to develop and implement a plan which will bring peace to locals.
The current attention of Ottawa Police Service to the Wellington protest has reduced attention within our community. We are extremely concerned with the number of incidents and the escalations of these incidents. We need the Ottawa Police to bring sustained and proactive attention into Ottawa’s communities and main street districts.
I hope that there is a peaceful end to this, so we can go back to living our lives.
For my neighbours who continue to hurt today, I hear you and stand with you. My team and I are here, we continue to pursue with colleagues and City officials’ options and solutions to support and bring relief to our community.
We’ve had enough. It’s time for them to go. We want our community and city back.