Ottawa Mayor Floats Selling Assets Seized From Freedom Convoy To ‘Recoup Some Of The Costs’

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson proposed confiscating and selling vehicles and other assets taken from Freedom Convoy protesters to cover the cost of policing and expelling the protest.

Watson argued Monday that the assets of protesters should be seized to “recoup some of the costs” of the Freedom Convoy, which took over parts of downtown Ottawa in late January in protest of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions. Watson said in part:

You (protesters) have disrupted our city, you’ve hurt our small business community, and this is costing a small fortune for the taxpayers of Ottawa. That’s one of the reasons why under the Emergencies Act, I’ve asked our solicitor and our city manager: How can we keep the tow trucks and the campers and the vans and everything else that we’ve confiscated, and sell those pieces of equipment to help recoup some of the costs that our taxpayers are absorbing? So that’s one of the provisions of the Emergencies Act, and we have been a beneficiary of the Emergencies Act. As they debated on the Hill, I asked the members of Parliament to consider [how] it’s helped us a lot on things like confiscating vehicles, not having to swear in peace officers through the RCMP, and so many other things that have been very helpful over the course of this period.

WATCH: Mayor of Ottawa says he wants to “recoup costs” by selling the trucks and equipment they confiscated under the emergency powers pic.twitter.com/64pHDiVPGb

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 21, 2022

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act last week as a “last resort” to handle the weeks-long protest. The emergency powers allowed the federal government to expand police powers and task financial institutions with freezing the assets of individuals involved in the “illegal blockades,” Trudeau said.- READ MORE