‘A quiet and boring city’: Ottawa resident says there’s relief now that protesters are gone

While it has only been a couple of days, Dave Scharf says there’s already a different feeling in Ottawa since protesters were removed from that city’s downtown by police.

“Things have returned to normal, whatever that means. I think people here feel that the city is peaceful again and you can wander through the downtown and do those normal activities in life,” said Scharf, who lived in Saskatchewan for most of his life until moving to Ottawa in 2011. “I think there’s a feeling of relief there.

“People here are very accustomed to the inconvenience that comes with protests — that’s part of living in the nation’s capital. We are not accustomed to a three-week-long occupation of our downtown. This was not a protest, this was a long, illegal occupation. That’s not what people are accustomed to and not what people should expect.”

Police began a large-scale operation Friday to clear the area of protesters and semis that had been entrenched in the downtown area for about three weeks, all as part of a protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

More than 190 arrests took place over the course of the weekend and more than 70 vehicles were towed away.

While Scharf doesn’t live downtown, his son does. The elder Scharf said there is still a large police presence in the area.

“Until (Monday), it was basically a sealed area. My son had to show identification to be able to get in and out to get home. Some of those checkpoints are down now (but) not all,” Scharf said.

Scharf said he felt nervous going out while the protest was there.

“It was that level of anxiety for a lot of people in this city for all those three weeks. That’s not present anymore. I don’t have that sense of foreboding that if I leave my home, I’m going to wind up with some confrontation with someone who will attack me because I’m wearing a mask,” Scharf said. “That was going on all over the city.”

Scharf said while the convoy was in the city, he noticed quite a few people in stores and restaurants without masks and refusing to put them on.

“I do notice that doesn’t happen anymore; that has disappeared. I’m not encountering people in my local grocery store who are breaching the local health restrictions and requirements to be masked. It does seem to have spilled over into the community that more people are following the rules,” Scharf said.

“For now, we are back to a quiet and boring city.”

Scharf said there’s a sense the incident might not be fully over, with trucks encamped near the city.

“You’re welcome to protest,” he said. “Ottawa is all about free protest and democracy and freedom of speech. You’re not welcome to close the streets to harass people and bully them.”