Where did all of the THOUSANDS of trucks end up in Ottawa? Diverted by police AWAY from downtown

This past weekend, I had the privilege of reporting on the ground in Ottawa, where the Canadian Truckers' for Freedom Convoy — consisting of tens of thousands of transport trucks from all corners of the nation — began to converge on Canada's capital city. Hundreds of thousands of supporters came out in support, to protest the heavy-handed COVID restrictions still in effect across Canada, which happened primarily in Ottawa’s downtown, centred on Parliament Hill.

It was truly remarkable to see so many transport trucks parked up and down a number of the main streets in downtown Ottawa, including all down Wellington St, right outside of the Canadian Parliament building. But while all eyes were focused on Parliament Hill, the noisy trucks blockading downtown, and the massive protest underway there, I couldn’t help but think — “where are all of the other trucks?”

As I mentioned, reports showed that not just hundreds, or a couple thousand, but tens of thousands of trucks had driven to Ottawa from all corners of the nation to converge on the capital.

While downtown Ottawa was quite a sight to behold — and it still is, with all of those trucks still there as I speak — I did not see tens of thousands of trucks parked downtown.

So I began to investigate — and to ask the truckers how they ended up where they did, and how police and city officials had directed their movements upon arrival.

As previously reported by Rebel News, government officials closed off two main bridges leading into the city, prior to Saturday’s protest: the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge connecting Gatineau, Quebec with Ottawa, Ontario and Alexandra Bridge, which also crosses the Ottawa River and connects Gatineau with Ottawa.

While private traffic and pedestrians were still allowed to cross these bridges, the allowable vehicle load capacities were restricted — preventing all truckers from entering the nation’s capital that way.

City officials had also used heavy equipment to block sections of roadways in Ottawa’s downtown, preventing truckers from entering those roads.

But that wasn’t all. I knew that thousands of trucks had made it into the city, despite these interferences.

As I began to inquire, I learned from the truckers who were parked downtown, that police had redirected the traffic of thousands of trucks, causing them to diverge away from downtown — and Canada’s parliament, where the focus was — and to park in designated parking lots across the city, away from streets where they would cause further gridlock and disruption to city traffic.

And the truckers complied with these directions. They wanted to be peaceful and law-abiding in their protest. As a result, it would seem that thousands of trucks ended up being led — deceptively, I was told — away from downtown, and found themselves scattered in many separate smaller groups, in dozens of parking lots across Ottawa, away from downtown.

I had the chance to examine one of these parking lots, located at a baseball stadium that's a six-kilometre drive away from downtown Ottawa, simply packed with trucks.

It was a full trucker camp prepared enticingly with food and tents and portable toilets –  tucked neatly away from where most people would ever see it.

I also interviewed one of the truckers at this parking lot camp, to try and get some answers as to how all of this was orchestrated.

You heard him there. It seems to me that city officials did everything they could to pull truckers away from downtown — away from Parliament — and divide them into smaller, less intrusive, out-of-the-way groups.

Unfortunately, I had to leave Ottawa before I had the chance to dig any deeper into this — but from what I heard from many truckers, there are dozens of camps like this scattered and divided throughout the entire city — intentionally, by design of government officials.

So just keep in mind — the trucks that you saw downtown were only a fraction of the trucks that came from all corners of the country to protest in Ottawa.