Boy does this sound familiar: Winnipeg General Strike 1919. The Citizens’ Committee of 1,000 quickly formed to organize opposition to the strike. It included Winnipeg’s most influential business leaders and politicians. This committee did not seriously consider the strikers’ demands. It called the strike a revolutionary plot led by a small group of “alien scum.” Winnipeg’s leading newspapers took this view, too. In reality, there was little evidence that the strike was started by Bolsheviks and immigrants from eastern Europe. But the Citizens’ Committee used these unproven charges to block any efforts to appease workers.
New fencing has been erected on the Parliament Hill side of Wellington Street, right next to where ‘Freedom Convoy’ demonstrators have been camped out for three weeks.
It’s the latest sign that police action to break up the downtown Ottawa occupation could be imminent. On Wednesday, police handed out notices to demonstrators warning them to leave the area or face arrest.
Groups of Ottawa police officers could be seen arriving downtown Thursday morning in the vicinity of the protest red zone.
