The inconsistency of police checkpoints for entry into Ottawa's 'Red Zone'

When heading down to the core of Ottawa during the last week of the truckers' Freedom Convoy, our Rebel News team — Alexa Lavoie, Guillaume Roy, David Menzies, Lincoln Jay, Mauricio Pacheco — had numerous encounters with police checkpoints. Most of these checkpoints had no consistency in regard to who they determined should have access to the empty streets surrounding Parliament.

Our team was checked to see if we were legitimate media multiple times; some police officers did not acknowledge that we were press. In a particular incident while our team was trying to reach their hotel, a group of police officers not only had high skepticism for our press legitimacy, but talked among themselves and accused the team of being a part of the protest — asking questions such as “do you have protest gear?”

On the desolate streets of Ottawa, our team was required to provide as much information as possible to prove our media authenticity, as well as receipts and booking information from specific hotels to confirm that we were indeed staying inside the red zone.

Who would’ve thought that in 2022, you’d ever hear the words “your papers?” to simply do your job as a journalist in Canada.

Here is one of the encounters that David and Mauricio had with an officer.

WATCH: Police checkpoints in Ottawa preventing us from entering the downtown core to report on the convoy protest: "this area is for residents and those who work in the area"

MORE: https://t.co/XQqZr4vN0X pic.twitter.com/1mtspvH1u5

— Mauricio (@_m2pacheco) February 19, 2022

There seemed to be no consistency in the way officers on the ground handled the screening process of individuals heading into town. Our reporters were told one thing, only to be contradicted by another officer at a further checkpoint. We did a bit of investigating to find out where we could find any means to ease the access to the lifeless streets of Parliament Hill, Mauricio ended up calling the Ottawa Police Service. To his surprise, there was no response.

So, he decided to go there in person.

Toward the end of the convoy, the streets of Ottawa, which were inhabited by civilians, protesters and patriotism, had completely morphed into a dystopian police-state.

Although there are currently no truckers on Parliament Hill, we have gotten some correspondents in the United States to show us how the Freedom Convoy has affected our southern neighbours. To check out more reports, go to ConvoyReports.com.