We reported earlier on the clever way that the protesters were getting around the effort by Ottawa officials threatening the arrest of anyone bringing them “material supports” such as fuel. They’re also working their way around the honk injunction as well, by simply making other kinds of noises or even playing recordings of honks, which isn’t “honking.”

People are standing up and it’s having an effect, as we saw with Alberta finally formally dropping their vaccine passport, and dropping other restrictions over the month.

But Ottawa officials are still going all-in trying to come down on the Freedom Convoy and anyone who supports them. There was a man who was stopped for giving a honk in support of the truckers as he was driving through the area. He wasn’t even a protester. Here’s the whole video and you can see things get quickly out of hand.

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— Kurt Phillips🧛‍♂️ (@ARCCollective) February 8, 2022

As far as I can tell, the man didn’t do anything to justify the manhandling that he received. He seemed to be complying with every request from the officer, although he did talk back to the officer. But he moved and the cop grabbed him, then twisted his arm behind his back. The authoritarian cop believed that the court’s injunction against honking gave him the right to arrest a man for simply giving a honk in the street.

Gerry Charlebois, a 78-year-old great grandfather who is under five feet tall, said he was stopped for “unnecessary noise.”

“I meant no harm,” Gerry Charlebois told the Toronto Sun. “I just gave the trucker a thumbs-up and a honk. I’m so sore. It hurts so much.” He suffered cuts and bruises in addition to having problems with his shoulder and arm.

His sons Gerald and Steve were infuriated by the treatment of their father who they said wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“I find it disgusting,” Gerald said. “There was no need to be so rough with him.”

With a “very messed-up shoulder” and having difficult moving his arm, Steve said of his dad: “We may have to take him to the hospital for an X-ray.”

The police announcement about the horns involved air horns and train horns, not regular car horns so it doesn’t even fit the injunction if it’s just a car horn.

Charlebois did not face criminal charges but he was given a $118 ticket for “unnecessary noise.”

That wasn’t the only thing that seemed to be getting out of hand. The Ottawa police said that they now were going to be focusing on the children at the protest. This is vile, they appear to be gearing up to threaten any of the parents there who may have brought children.

Deputy Chief Steve Bell said the police are working with the Children’s Aid Society regarding those children.

“It’s something that greatly concerns us,” Bell said, as first responders are worried about the constant exposure to carbon monoxide, fumes, noise levels and the sanitation of the children.

“We’ll rely on the Children’s Aid Society to help provide and give us guidance around that. We just think it’s an important factor that complicates and makes this an even more challenging operation.”

In a statement to CBC, the society confirmed it is working with Ottawa police and said it has a duty to investigate allegations of abuse and whether a child may need protection.

The protesters disputed that any children were endangered by the peaceful protests and condemned the move by the government.

“Children are protected by their parents, OK? They’re fine. This is a perfectly peaceful protest,” said Jacob Verellen who travelled to Ottawa from the Chatham-Kent area in southwestern Ontario. He said part of the reason he was at the protest was because of his nephew.

“This is wrong that we’re even suggesting taking children from their parents.”

Cynthia Boutilier travelled to Ottawa from north of Kingston, Ont. with three of her six children last Friday. Even though they brought a trailer with a wood fireplace, she said friends have put them up in a hotel. [….]

“We are out here for our children and our children’s future,” she said. “What concerns me more is what is happening to my children and what may happen to them in the future and that is the reason that we’re going to keep them out here, because they’re on the forefront. [They] are the future that we’re fighting for.”

It’s getting low when they’re now trying to target people’s children to stop them.