Ford 'Extremely Disturbed' By Display Of Hate Symbols At Convoy Protest Over The Weekend​

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Premier Doug Ford says he was "extremely disturbed" to see symbols of hate at the Freedom Convoy 2022 demonstration over the weekend.

Canadian truckers and their supporters travelled to Ottawa to protest against COVID-19 mandates. Some protesters in attendance were seen waving symbols like swastikas that have no relation to the reasons to gather.

"I was extremely disturbed, however, to see some individuals desecrate our most sacred monuments and wave swastikas and other symbols of hate and intolerance this weekend," Ford said in a statement sent to Narcity.

Ford acknowledged in his statement that the "right to peaceful protest is core to our Canadian identity." However, he says that hate and intolerance have "no place in Ontario or Canada. Not now. Not ever."

Ottawa's Terry Fox statue and the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier were allegedly tampered with over the weekend along with spottings of hateful symbols.

Ottawa Mayor, Jim Watson, responded to a photo of the Terry Fox statue on Twitter saying the stunt was "completely unacceptable." The image shows the statue holding an upside-down Canadian flag and a sign that reads "mandate freedom."

"This kind of stunt by protesters does not help their cause," Watson adds.

Later on, a video was posted of some protesters cleaning up the statue.

A video of an individual standing and yelling on the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier was also posted to Twitter, gathering almost 900,000 views and thousands of comments.

In the video, another individual can be heard in the background yelling at the person to "get off the grave."

The protest is still ongoing and racking up the capital with a bill of over $800,000 for each day it continues, according to Ottawa Police Service.

Ford says as public measures start to relax today, January 31, "all Ontarians are united in their desire to put this pandemic behind us and return to the life we knew before COVID-19."