Downtown business owners 'defeated' by convoy closures, harassment

Business owners in downtown Ottawa say they're fed up with a protest that has clogged downtown streets, filled the air with blaring horns and killed business for the past four days.

Road closures and vehicle arrivals started Friday and the convoy swelled to its largest on Saturday, according to police, before slowly shrinking in the days following. Many large trucks remains in the downtown core as of Monday evening, though.

The protest began in opposition to mandatory vaccination for cross-border truckers but has since evolved to include a range of opposition to COVID-19 public health measures.

"It's a complete debacle," said Robin Seguin, who runs the 98-year-old Victoria Barber Shop on O'Connor Street, just steps from Parliament Hill.

Seguin said she would have been open and cutting hair on Friday and Monday were it not for the risk to her building and her health posed by crowds of protesters.

Instead of cutting hair, she's cutting hours.

"We want our businesses and our lives back," said Seguin. "You've come, you've made your point. We hear you loud and clear. It's time to go."

Downtown restaurant targeted due to misinformation

Sarah Chown, the managing partner at Metropolitain Brasserie, had already run out of patience by Monday afternoon.

She spent Friday excitedly preparing for the easing of restrictions across Ontario, which allowed for 50 per cent capacity for indoor dining as of Monday. Instead on Saturday she decided to close down the kitchen, including for takeout orders, since there was no safe way for delivery drivers to get to the restaurant at the corner of Sussex Drive and Wellington Street.

The loss of business after two years of the pandemic made for a "rough" weekend, and Chown watched protesters block streets, honk air horns almost incessantly, and urinate around the restaurant property in broad daylight.

To make matters worse, she later learned the name of her business appeared on a list of those purporting to support the protest. The restaurant does not support the convoy, she said.

"I went into panic mode. There's a lot of misinformation out there on a lot of topics and this was just another one," said Chown.

"I felt defeated."

'We need something to be done'

Chef Joe Thottungal says customer behaviour gradually deteriorated at his downtown restaurant Thali on Saturday, eventually leading to confrontations.

"If you are wearing masks, we don't want your food," he says his staff were told.

Thottungal then closed the restaurant Sunday after he learned of the confrontation at the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter

"It's not worth it for us to be on the line," he said. "We need something to be done here."

On Monday, Ottawa's mayor, police chief and other city officials said they were communicating with the remaining protesters, but would not commit to a date for when the rest of the convoy would leave the downtown core.