Police poured into downtown Ottawa on Thursday in what truckers feared was a prelude to a crackdown on their nearly three-week, street-clogging protest against Canada's COVID-19 restrictions.

Work crews in the capital began erecting fences outside Parliament, and for the second day in a row, officers handed out warnings to the protesters to leave. Busloads of police converged on the area.

"The illegal blockade and occupation has to stop and borders have to remain open," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared in Parliament, not far from where the more than 300 trucks were parked.

"They are a threat to our economy and our relationship with trading partners," he said. "They are a threat to public safety."

Many of the protesters in the self-styled Freedom Convoy reacted to the warnings with scorn.

Ottawa represented the movement's last stronghold after weeks of demonstrations and blockades that shut down border crossings into the U.S., inflicted economic damage on both countries and created a political crisis for Trudeau.

The protests have shaken Canada's reputation for civility and rule-following and inspired similar convoys in France, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Early this week, Trudeau invoked Canada's Emergencies Act, empowering law enforcement authorities to declare the blockades illegal, tow away trucks and punish the drivers by arresting them, freezing their bank accounts and suspending their licenses.

On Wednesday, Ottawa police handed out leaflets warning the truckers to leave immediately or face the consequences, and the city's police chief declared his intention to break the siege and take back downtown "in the coming days."

Officers on Thursday delivered a third round of warnings and also placed notices on vehicles, helpfully advising owners how and where to pick up their trucks if they are towed.

The occupation has infuriated many Ottawa residents.

Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen says the prime minister did nothing to attempt to de-escalate the situation outside Parliament Hill before invoking the Emergencies Act.

She says the Conservatives are the "party of law and order," and they believe the trucks should move or be moved, but they will keep standing up for protesters.

She describes the invocation of the act as a power grab by the prime minister and accuses him of doing it to "save his own political skin at the cost of the rights and freedoms of Canadians."

The protests around the country by demonstrators in trucks, tractors and motor homes initially focused on Canada's vaccine requirement for truckers entering the country but soon morphed into a broader attack on COVID-19 precautions and Trudeau's government.

The movement has drawn support from right-wing extremists and veterans, some of them armed, and authorities have hesitated to move against them, in part out of fear of violence.

Fox News personalities and U.S. conservatives such as Donald Trump have egged on the protests, and Trudeau complained on Thursday that "roughly half of the funding to the barricaders here is coming from the United States."

In Ottawa, the trucks were parked shoulder-to-shoulder downtown, some with tires removed to hamper towing. Some were said to chained together.

Police were especially worried about the children who earlier this week were seen playing in the streets and being pushed by parents in strollers through the occupied area.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm
Subscribe to our newest channel Quicktake Explained: https://bit.ly/3iERrup

Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.

To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app.

Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30

Connect with us on…
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg
Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloombergQuickTakeNews
Twitter: https://twitter.com/quicktake
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quicktake
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quicktake