Over four days in February 2022, police ended the occupation of downtown Ottawa. They made hundreds of arrests and used force. Two independent investigations followed; the courts spent the next four years sorting out the rest. Here is what is documented — the peaceful scenes and the harassment, the use of force and the oversight, the convictions and the claims still unresolved.
Feb 17–20, 2022. The integrated operation that ended the occupation.
391 charges laid. Figures grew over the following weeks.
The horse incident and the Vancouver Police munitions.
Two completed independent SIU investigations examined the documented force — the horse strike and the less-lethal munitions — and found no basis to charge. This "0" is an adjudicated finding, not an unexamined gap.
By mid-February 2022, trucks and protesters had occupied the streets around Parliament Hill for nearly three weeks. On February 17, an integrated police operation — Ottawa Police working with the OPP, the RCMP and officers from other forces — began to clear the downtown core. Over the next four days, police pushed through the protest zone block by block, arrested people, and towed away the vehicles.
As of February 21, interim Chief Steve Bell reported 191 arrests, 391 charges and 76 vehicles towed — for things like obstructing police, disobeying a court order, assault, mischief, and assaulting a police officer. Those numbers (a point-in-time tally) kept rising in the weeks afterward as investigations continued.
During the operation, police used force. They deployed a "chemical irritant" (pepper spray), stun grenades, batons, and ARWEN munitions — mid-range, less-lethal impact rounds fired from a launcher. Police said the operation was "slow and methodical" and that force was used to stop "assaultive behaviour" and for officer safety. They explicitly denied using tear gas.
Two moments drew the most scrutiny. On February 18 at about 5:14 p.m., at Rideau and Mackenzie, a Toronto Police mounted (horse) officer knocked a woman to the ground. And on February 19 at about 7:18 p.m., near Sparks and Bank, Vancouver Police officers fired less-lethal munitions into the crowd. Ontario’s police watchdog — the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) — opened an investigation into each.
Both investigations were later closed without charges. The SIU found the woman knocked down by the horse suffered only a strained shoulder — below the legal threshold that gives the SIU jurisdiction — and found "no reasonable grounds" to believe the Vancouver officers who fired munitions had acted unlawfully. Separately, the bulk of public complaints about police conduct were screened out by Ontario’s civilian complaints body.
What people make of all this still divides sharply. Below, the documented events are laid out with their sources, followed by the police justification and the criticism — and links to this archive’s own footage of those two days.
A note on certainty. The two SIU outcomes are official findings. The journalists’ injury claims are allegations that were not the subject of either completed SIU investigation, and no officer is publicly recorded as charged over them. We mark which is which throughout.
A joint police operation — Ottawa Police, OPP, RCMP and officers from other forces — begins moving to end the weeks-long occupation of the downtown core. The clearing would run over four days, Feb 17–20.
CTV News ↗At Rideau Street and Mackenzie Avenue, a Toronto Police Service mounted (horse) officer interacts with a 49-year-old woman, who is knocked to the ground; video also shows a man knocked down. The woman was publicly identified as Candice ("Candy") Sero, a Tyendinaga Mohawk woman who uses a walker.
SIU incident description ↗During the main push, Ottawa police use a "chemical irritant" (pepper spray), stun grenades, batons and ARWEN (Anti Riot Weapon Enfield) mid-range impact munitions. Police say the operation was "slow and methodical" and explicitly deny using tear gas: "No tear gas has been used."
Al Jazeera ↗Near Sparks Street and Bank Street, Vancouver Police Department officers discharge ARWEN/less-lethal firearms into the crowd. Two men, aged 36 and 41, are struck. The SIU later said it found no serious injuries.
SIU concluding release ↗Police remove the last of the trucks and vehicles from the downtown streets, ending the physical occupation. CTV headlines the day "191 arrests later, Ottawa police remove remaining Freedom Convoy vehicles."
CTV News ↗Interim Chief Steve Bell says 191 people had been arrested and 391 charges laid, including obstructing police, disobeying a court order, assault, mischief, possessing a weapon and assaulting a police officer, with 76 vehicles towed from the downtown core. (These figures grew over subsequent weeks as investigations continued; the 76-vehicle figure is the point-in-time Feb 21 total.)
Global News ↗SIU Director Joseph Martino terminates the mounted-unit investigation. After reviewing drone and body-worn camera footage and medical records, the SIU found the woman "did not sustain any fractures and that her injury was limited to a strained shoulder" — not a "serious injury" within the SIU mandate. The file was referred to the Toronto Police Service for any further review.
SIU news release ↗Director Martino concludes the VPD less-lethal investigation with no charges, finding "no reasonable grounds to believe that either subject official comported themselves unlawfully." The force was assessed as reasonable crowd control. The SIU release did not identify any of those struck as journalists.
SIU news release ↗Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit is an independent body that investigates police conduct causing serious injury or death. It opened two files from the clearing. Both were closed without charges — for different reasons.
A horse ridden by a Toronto Police officer knocked down a 49-year-old woman — identified publicly as Tyendinaga Mohawk Candice ("Candy") Sero, who uses a walker — at Rideau and Mackenzie on Feb 18.
Two Vancouver Police officers fired less-lethal (ARWEN) munitions near Sparks and Bank on Feb 19. Two men, aged 36 and 41, were struck. No serious injuries were reported.
Note the distinction critics draw: the horse file closed because the injury was below the threshold — the SIU never adjudicated the conduct of riding into the crowd; it referred that back to the Toronto Police to consider itself. The munitions file, by contrast, was adjudicated on the merits and the officers were cleared.
The same operation is read two ways. We set out the police/government justification and the documented criticism side by side, each with its sources.
Police framed the clearing as a measured, lawful operation after weeks of an entrenched downtown occupation.
Critics argued the force was excessive and that oversight under-delivered.
Supporters describe the occupation as overwhelmingly peaceful; residents describe weeks of noise and harassment. The cleanest neutral fulcrum is a single court order that recognised both at once.
The fulcrum — Li v. Barber (the horn injunction). On Feb 7, 2022 (effective Feb 8), Ontario Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean granted a 10-day injunction barring anyone not employed by a municipal fire department from sounding air or train horns in downtown Ottawa. The judge said protesters could continue "a peaceful, lawful and safe protest" — but had to stop the honking. So the same official order recognises the right to peaceful protest and the noise-nuisance harm. It was brought by 21-year-old resident Zexi Li (lawyer Paul Champ) and later extended.
What is fact, allegation and finding here. The horn injunction is an official court order — both the peaceful-protest right and the noise harm are judicially recognised. Sloly’s "no riots/injuries/deaths" line is accurately quoted fact, but described only the first four days and was paired by Sloly himself with warnings of danger; it does not characterise the Feb 17–20 clearing covered above. The "We love you" chant is fact (on video, widely circulated) but coexisted with documented scuffles and alleged assaults on officers the same days. "Financial censorship" is the supporter label/opinion: the GoFundMe block was a private platform enforcing its terms (then auto-refunding all donors), and the GiveSendGo freeze was a court order. "Two-tier policing" is contested opinion, not a finding. Separately, the Federal Court (2024 FC 42) and Court of Appeal (2026 FCA 6) found the federal Emergencies Act invocation unreasonable and in breach of the Charter — but those rulings concern the federal declaration, not the horn injunction or individual policing acts.
The arrests were only the start. Here is what the courts, the prosecutors and the civil litigation have produced since — convictions and acquittals, sentences far below what the Crown sought, an unresolved class action, and the economic aftermath.
Interim Chief Steve Bell first reported 191 arrests and 391 charges (Feb 21). By a March Ottawa Police update the running total had grown to 230 arrests, of whom 118 (just over half) had been charged with more than 400 offences, plus hundreds of provincial notices. These are point-in-time police totals — no single authoritative final lifetime tally with a date was located.
CBC News ↗Organizer Pat King was found guilty (Nov 2024) on 5 of 9 charges — mischief, counselling to commit mischief, counselling to obstruct police, and two counts of disobeying a court order — and acquitted of three counts of intimidation and one of obstructing police. On Feb 19, 2025 Justice Hackland gave him a 3-month conditional sentence (house arrest), 100 hours community service and one year probation, on top of ~9 months already in pre-trial custody. The Crown had sought 10 years.
CBC News ↗After a 45-day trial, Justice Heather Perkins-McVey of the Ontario Court of Justice found organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber guilty of mischief; Barber was also guilty of counselling others to disobey the anti-honking court order. Both were acquitted of intimidation, counselling intimidation, obstructing police and counselling to obstruct. The judge cited the pair routinely encouraging people to join or stay despite knowing the harm to residents and businesses, quoting Barber’s TikTok videos.
Global News ↗Justice Perkins-McVey sentenced both to 18-month conditional sentences (no further jail): 12 months house arrest plus a curfew period (Barber 6 months’ curfew; Lich 3.5 months, with credit for 19 days initially in jail and ~30 days after a bail breach), and 100 hours of community service each. The Crown had sought 7 years for Lich and 8 years for Barber — the large gap is itself a documented outcome.
CBC News ↗The Ottawa residents’ class action (Li v. Barber) — led by Centretown resident Zexi Li, seeking ~C$290 million on behalf of an estimated ~15,000 downtown residents, businesses and employees — cleared a defence anti-SLAPP challenge: the Ontario Court of Appeal (2025 ONCA 169) dismissed the appeal, allowing the proposed class action to proceed. Since then, a defence motion to permanently stay the action — over the plaintiffs’ failure to disclose a partial settlement with defendant Chad Eros (signed April 2024, disclosed to other defendants only in January 2026) — was set down on January 29, 2026 to be argued before any certification; the certification motion previously slated for July 2026 is now contingent on that motion. As of June 19, 2026 the case is NOT certified or decided on the merits — there is no civil liability finding.
CanLII · 2025 ONCA 169 ↗The courts convicted the three highest-profile organizers, validating the Crown’s core theory that they sustained an unlawful occupation knowing the harm to residents and businesses.
Supporters read the same outcomes as partial vindication of a largely peaceful protest and as evidence of prosecutorial overreach.
The figures below are analyst and Retail Council of Canada estimates, presented as ranges — not audited or court-determined sums. The class action’s ~C$290M is a pleaded amount, not an award.
Expert estimates for the ~23-day occupation (Jan 29 – Feb 20). A range, not an audited figure.
CBC: businesses collectively losing roughly $900,000 a day during the occupation.
Downtown’s busiest mall shut Jan 29 over safety, reopened Feb 22 — Retail Council estimated ~$2.3M/day in lost revenue while closed; ~$73M over the period (sales only).
Ottawa announced (Feb 19, 2022) up to $20M in non-repayable contributions for affected downtown businesses — treating the harm as real.
Certainty markers. Arrest/charge numbers are point-in-time, not a final lifetime tally (191/391 on Feb 21; 230 arrests / 118 charged / 400+ offences by ~March 2022) — no authoritative final total with a date was located. The convictions and the intimidation/obstruction acquittals are both official findings. The class action is ongoing and uncertified: there is no liability finding, and nothing implies the ~C$290M has been or will be awarded.
This archive holds synchronized footage of those two days, from the people who were there. The contributor captions are their own; where one conflicts with a verified police statement (e.g. "tear gas"), we flag it.
The day of the mounted-unit advance at Rideau/Mackenzie (~5:14 p.m.) and the first downtown arrests at Rideau & Sussex. Synchronized streamer footage and traffic-cam frames for the area — note that no single clip here is confirmed to show the horse strike itself; the widely-circulated bystander video of that moment is external to this archive.
Open in archive →Self-hosted footage from this archive, captioned by the contributor "The first arrests at Rideau & Sussex." Documents early arrest activity downtown the same day as the horse incident.
A 60-second moment, captioned by the contributor as riot police arriving — he names them as Sûreté du Québec, an attribution that is his claim, not a confirmed fact. It documents the tactical-police presence as the Feb 18 clearing began.
The main clearing push down Wellington/Sparks, the raid on "The Shed," and the use of pepper spray and ARWEN munitions. The VPD less-lethal discharge near Sparks/Bank (~7:18 p.m.) falls in this window.
Open in archive →Self-hosted footage from this archive — a volunteer-edited highlight from The Transporter’s Feb 19 recording of the main push, the day police confirmed using pepper spray, stun grenades, batons and ARWEN munitions.
Captioned by the contributor as police using "heavy force, pepper spray and tear gas." Note: Ottawa police publicly stated "No tear gas has been used" — what was deployed was pepper spray, stun grenades and ARWEN munitions. The contributor caption is a claim, paired here with the police denial.
Open in archive →The contributor captioned this “police shoot some sort of concussive bomb into a crowd chanting ‘we love you’.” It documents a less-lethal/stun deployment during the Feb 19 push — but it is NOT the ~5:14 p.m. horse incident, and NOT the ~7:18 p.m. VPD discharge the SIU investigated.
A 90-second moment the contributor captioned “O Canada and pepper spray” — the crowd singing the anthem as police deploy a chemical irritant during the Feb 19 push. Ottawa police publicly confirmed using pepper spray.
A reconstructed City of Ottawa traffic-camera timelapse (1 frame/minute) from a fixed vantage on the Wellington core. It documents the zone being cleared across the day from a wide, neutral angle — it does not show any single use-of-force moment up close.
Open in archive →Self-hosted footage from this archive — a volunteer-edited highlight from Feb 20, as police tow the remaining trucks and the physical occupation ends.
What this archive does not hold: footage of the ~7:18 p.m. Feb 19 VPD less-lethal discharge near Sparks & Bank itself. Contributor coverage that evening ends around 6 p.m., and the nearest traffic camera stops before 7 p.m. The clips above document the daytime clearing push — not that specific SIU-investigated moment.
Candice Sero’s age was reported inconsistently (the SIU said 49; some supporters said 51). We use the SIU figure and note the discrepancy.
Don’t take anyone’s word for it — including ours. Every factual claim above traces to one of these: the independent oversight files first, then the contemporaneous reporting, the labelled allegation, and the broader legal context.
The primary statement opening both investigations: the Feb 18 (~5:14 p.m.) Rideau/Mackenzie horse incident with a 49-year-old woman, and the Feb 19 (~7:18 p.m.) Sparks/Bank discharge of ARWEN less-lethal firearms by Vancouver Police. Includes the SIU’s appeal for anyone struck by a projectile to come forward.
Open source ↗Director Joseph Martino closes the file: drone and body-worn camera footage plus medical records showed no fractures, only a strained shoulder — not a "serious injury" under the SIU mandate, so no jurisdiction. Referred to the Toronto Police Service for any further internal review.
Open source ↗Director Martino clears two VPD officers who fired less-lethal munitions near Bank St; two men (36 and 41) struck, no serious injuries; "no reasonable grounds to believe" either officer acted unlawfully. Force assessed as reasonable crowd control.
Open source ↗Confirms use of ARWEN, pepper spray ("chemical irritant"), stun grenades and batons; arrest tallies during the push; and the police statement that the mounted-unit deployment caused no reported injuries.
Open source ↗Documents the final push and the explicit police statement "No tear gas has been used," plus the police framing of the operation as "slow and methodical."
Open source ↗Official totals from interim Chief Steve Bell as of Feb 21: 191 arrests, 391 charges, vehicles seized and towed; lists the charge categories.
Open source ↗Corroborates the ~191 arrest figure and documents the vehicle-removal phase that ended the occupation.
Open source ↗Reports both SIU investigations and quotes interim Chief Steve Bell’s account of the horse incident: two people who "collided with the horses... immediately got back up."
Open source ↗Mainstream report on the SIU closing the horse-incident file. (Corroborated by the SIU primary release above.)
Open source ↗Identifies the woman struck by the horse as Tyendinaga Mohawk Candice Sero, who uses a walker, and documents the perspective of those injured.
Open source ↗OIPRD complaint-disposition data: the large majority of convoy-related public complaints were screened out; only a small number were referred for investigation.
Open source ↗Source for the protester-side "no riots/injuries/deaths" framing: quotes Chief Sloly (Jan 31) that riots, injuries and loss of life had not occurred over the first four days. Partisan-leaning outlet; the underlying Sloly quote is accurate and corroborated.
Open source ↗Documents the festive/family atmosphere supporters emphasize — barbecues at Parliament Hill, street hockey, bouncy castles "for the kids" — while calling the scene a mix of "hostility and hospitality" resembling a picnic or country fair.
Open source ↗The Li v. Barber noise injunction: Justice Hugh McLean granted a 10-day order (granted Feb 7, effective Feb 8) barring non-fire-department air/train horns north of Highway 417, while affirming the right to "a peaceful, lawful and safe protest." Brought by resident Zexi Li.
Open source ↗Legal-news account of the horn injunction: resident evidence of 84 dB inside an apartment and 12–16 hours/day of horns; confirms the court’s framing that protest may continue but the noise must stop.
Open source ↗Resident-side primary account: Li’s testimony on the lived experience of the occupation — near-constant honking, anxiety in the gaps, ~84 dB indoors — used at the organizers’ mischief trial.
Open source ↗Public Order Emergency Commission opening: lawyer Paul Champ describes residents "traumatized" by harassment, ear-splitting horns, fireworks "pinging" off buildings, carelessly stored gas/propane, and reports of residents harassed or assaulted — including for wearing a mask.
Open source ↗Documents the fuel/jerry-can seizures (Coventry Road raid, thousands of litres, oil tanker removed) and the police warning that bringing gas to demonstrators could mean arrest — the logistics-disruption tactic supporters cast as punitive. (Paywalled; figures corroborated across outlets.)
Open source ↗Local corroboration of the fuel-seizure enforcement and arrests of supporters resupplying fuel.
Open source ↗GoFundMe blocks ~C$10M from 120,000+ donors, citing violence/harassment terms and law-enforcement reports of an occupation — the core of the "financial censorship / ordinary donors" supporter framing. (Paywalled; corroborated.)
Open source ↗GoFundMe’s own statement reversing course: after first planning to redistribute remaining funds to charity, it announced — "due to donor feedback" and amid backlash — that it would automatically refund every donor.
Open source ↗Feb 10 Ontario Superior Court restraint order (Criminal Code "offence-related property"), sought by the Ford government, freezing ~US$8.4M plus US$686k on GiveSendGo — with GiveSendGo’s defiant "ZERO jurisdiction" response. The "financial censorship"/overreach framing is contested.
Open source ↗Polling on the contested "two-tier policing" perception: ~64% think some protesters get preferential treatment, but views diverge sharply by political affiliation over which groups benefit — establishing the claim as opinion/perception, not a finding.
Open source ↗Wire-level reporting: crowds chanting "Freedom!" and singing O Canada as police pushed them back, alongside scuffles, ~100 arrests, and police statements that protesters assaulted officers and tried to grab weapons — the documented coexistence of peaceful chants and physical resistance.
Open source ↗Ottawa Police running totals about a month after the clearing: 230 arrests, 118 people charged with more than 400 offences, plus hundreds of provincial notices. The source for arrest/charge totals beyond the Feb 21 figures (191/391).
Open source ↗The guilty verdict: Justice Perkins-McVey convicts both of mischief (Barber also of counselling to disobey a court order); acquittals on intimidation and obstruction. Cites Barber’s TikTok videos as evidence.
Open source ↗Sentencing: 18-month conditional sentences (house arrest + curfew + 100 hours community service each), no further jail. Details Lich’s credit for time served (19 days plus ~30 days for a bail breach). The Crown had sought 7 years (Lich) and 8 years (Barber).
Open source ↗Pat King’s sentence: 3-month conditional sentence (house arrest), 100 hours community service, one year probation, after ~9 months pre-trial custody; convicted Nov 2024 on 5 of 9 charges; Crown had sought 10 years.
Open source ↗Randy Hillier’s nine charges were stayed (Nov 14, 2024) for unconstitutional trial delay (Jordan / Charter s. 11(b)), but the Ontario Court of Appeal OVERTURNED that stay on Mar 20, 2026 and REINSTATED all nine charges; his prosecution is ongoing as of June 19, 2026. (By contrast, Ben Spicer’s charges were dismissed for a Charter breach by secret in-custody recording.)
Open source ↗Primary appellate decision: the Court of Appeal dismisses the defence’s anti-SLAPP appeal, allowing the residents’ proposed ~C$290M class action to proceed. (Also hosted on the plaintiffs’ portal as the Anti-SLAPP Appeal PDF.)
Open source ↗Status update on Li v. Barber: ~C$290M sought, lead plaintiff Zexi Li, ~15,000-member proposed class; certification motion expected to be argued July 2026 (per lawyer Paul Champ). Confirms the case is not yet certified or decided.
Open source ↗Core economic-impact source: estimates of $44M–$200M over 23 days; ~$900,000/day across downtown businesses; Rideau Centre shops ~$2.3M/day and ~$73M over the occupation. Analyst estimates, not audited losses.
Open source ↗Documents the Rideau Centre’s reopening (Feb 22, 2022) after a more-than-three-week closure that began Jan 29 — the single most-cited downtown-business impact.
Open source ↗The Federal Court found the Emergencies Act invocation unreasonable and the measures in breach of Charter ss. 2(b) and 8. Concerns the federal emergency declaration — not the lawfulness of individual policing acts during the clearing.
Open source ↗The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the government’s appeal: invocation unreasonable and ultra vires; Charter ss. 2(b) and 8 violations confirmed. The Supreme Court appeal is pending as of June 19, 2026.
Open source ↗The clearing ended the occupation, but it also put police use of force in Ontario under independent review. Two investigations were completed; both closed without charges. Those are the official findings on this record.
At the same time, the people who were injured, Indigenous advocates and several journalists dispute that the force was proportionate, and point to oversight that screened out most complaints without investigating them. Some of those questions — the Toronto Police’s own review, the journalists’ claims, a final arrest tally — remain open.
The years since have only sharpened the disagreement. The courts convicted the three best-known organizers of mischief while acquitting them of intimidation, and imposed sentences far short of what the Crown sought; a residents’ class action seeking ~C$290M is still unproven; and the peaceful scenes supporters remember sit, in the record, alongside the honking, harassment and seizures that residents and a judge also documented. Both belong on this page.
The point of this page is to keep the record straight: the documented events, the official findings, and the genuine disagreement — each tied to a source, so that what happened during those four days is not forgotten.