Pamela Wallin is a Canadian senator, former television journalist, and diplomat. She was appointed to the senate on January 2, 2009, where she initially sat as a Conservative.
Wilbert Joseph Keon was a Canadian physician. A heart surgeon and researcher by profession, Keon was a longtime Canadian senator.
Eli El-Chantiry is a former Canadian politician. He was an Ottawa City Councillor from 2003 to 2022 and served as chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board.
Michael Dennis Duffy is a former Canadian senator and former Canadian television journalist. Prior to his appointment to the upper house in 2008, he was the Ottawa editor for CTV News Channel. Upon turning 75 on May 27, 2021, Duffy retired from the senate due to mandatory retirement rules.
The Ottawa Police Service is the municipal police service of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as well as most of the Ontario side of the National Capital Region. The OPS employs 1,480 officers and 620 staff as of 2022, and serves an area of 2,790 square kilometres and 1,017,449 people, alongside several other police forces which have specialized jurisdiction. Formally established in 1855, the OPS gradually absorbed the police forces of other neighbouring municipalities as Ottawa itself expanded, and experienced multiple mergers and reforms in the process; the current OPS was established in 2001.
Vincent Thomas Bevan is a retired Canadian police officer who served as the chief of police of the Ottawa Police Service from April 2000 to March 2007. He led one of the largest police services in Canada and was one of only six Canadian chiefs in the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
On October 14, 2007, Robert Dziekański, a 40-year old Polish immigrant to Canada, was killed during an arrest at the Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia (BC).
Donald Meredith is a Canadian Pentecostal minister and former politician. Meredith was appointed to the Senate of Canada on 18 December 2010 as a Conservative. He was expelled from the Conservative caucus on 17 June 2015, however, following allegations that he had groomed a teenager for two years, starting when the girl was 16. He was found guilty of ethics violations by the Senate ethics office in March 2017.
Patrick Brazeau is a Canadian senator from Quebec. At the age of 34, he was and is the youngest member of the Senate during his appointment. From February 2006 until January 2009 he held the position of national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. Brazeau was expelled from the Conservative caucus following his February 7, 2013 arrest for domestic assault and sexual assault. On September 15, 2015, Brazeau pleaded guilty to simple assault and cocaine possession as part of a plea deal in which other assault charges were dropped, and he was acquitted of sexual assault.
Peter John Michael Sloly is a Canadian former police officer who served as the chief of police for the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) from 2019 to 2022. Before joining the OPS, Sloly was a member of the Toronto Police Service (TPS) for 27 years, including as a deputy chief of police from 2009 to 2016.
Leonidas Housakos is a Canadian politician who has served as the senator for Wellington, Quebec since January 8, 2009. A member of the Conservative Party, Housakos was appointed on the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Housakos served as the speaker of the Senate for part of 2015.
Charles J. Bordeleau is a retired Canadian police officer who served as the chief of police of the Ottawa Police Service from March 2012 until May 2019. Prior to this, he served as the city's deputy chief of police.
The Canadian Senate expenses scandal, also known as Duffygate, was a political scandal concerning the expense claims of certain Canadian senators which began in late 2012. Senators Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy, Mac Harb, and Pamela Wallin claimed travel and living allowance expenses from the Senate for which they were not eligible. Deloitte LLP was retained to provide the Senate with an independent examination of the expense claims. Duffy, Harb, and Wallin repaid ineligible amounts. Harb retired a few months into the scandal, and in November 2013, Brazeau, Duffy, and Wallin were suspended from the Senate without pay. Brazeau, Duffy, and Harb were criminally charged. On April 21, 2016, Duffy was acquitted on all charges. Charges against Harb were withdrawn and no charges were to be laid against Wallin. The scandal attracted much public attention, with as many as 73% of Canadians following it closely. Many said that the scandal impacted the 2015 Canadian general election.
The 2014 shootings at Parliament Hill were a series of shootings that occurred on October 22, 2014, at Parliament Hill in Ottawa. At the National War Memorial, Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a Canadian soldier and reservist on ceremonial sentry duty, was fatally shot by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. Described as mentally unwell, Zehaf-Bibeau then entered the nearby Centre Block parliament building, where members of the Parliament of Canada were attending caucuses. After wrestling with a constable at the entrance, Zehaf-Bibeau ran inside and had a shootout with RCMP officers. He was shot 31 times by six officers and died on scene. Following the shootings, the downtown core of Ottawa was placed on lockdown and majority of schools in Ottawa were on lockdown while police searched for any potential additional threats.
General Jonathan Holbert Vance is a retired Canadian Forces officer who served as a general in the Canadian Army. Vance was the chief of the Defence Staff from 2015 to 2021.
Admiral Arthur Gerard McDonald, is a Royal Canadian Navy admiral who served as Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Forces from January 14, 2021, until February 24, 2021, when he voluntarily stepped aside due to an investigation by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service. On November 25, 2021, McDonald was formally relieved of his command, and replaced permanently by General Wayne Eyre who had held the post during the interim.
Paul Manning, also known by the pseudonyms Paul Wright and the Englishman, is a former Hamilton Police Service officer, Metropolitan Police Service officer and Royal Military Police officer (UK) who worked undercover in an Ontario Provincial Police and Hamilton Police Service joint task force for 18 months, successfully infiltrating the Musitano crime family, Papalia crime family and the Hamilton chapter of Hells Angels.
The death of Abdirahman Abdi, a Somali-Canadian, occurred on July 24, 2016, in the neighbourhood of Hintonburg in Ottawa, Ontario. Abdi died in an incident with the Ottawa Police Service.
A series of protests and blockades in Canada against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions, called the Freedom Convoy by organizers, began in early 2022. The initial convoy movement was created to protest vaccine mandates for crossing the United States border, but later evolved into a protest about COVID-19 mandates in general. Beginning January 22, hundreds of vehicles formed convoys from several points and traversed Canadian provinces before converging on Ottawa on January 29, 2022, with a rally at Parliament Hill. The convoys were joined by thousands of pedestrian protesters. Several offshoot protests blockaded provincial capitals and border crossings with the United States.
The following article is a broad timeline of the course of events surrounding the Canada convoy protest, a series of protests and blockades in Canada in early 2022. The protest, which was called the Freedom Convoy by organizers, was "first aimed at a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers" when the convoy of hundreds of vehicles, including semi-trailers, headed towards Ottawa, Ontario the nation's capital, starting on January 22. The protesters quickly changed their messaging to include demands that all COVID-19-related public health restrictions be lifted.
