A meager showing for a protest in Windsor against new COVID-19 restrictions which came into effect Thursday at 12:01am.
There was a heavy police presence as just under 20 people gathered at the downtown Cenotaph just before midnight — those in attendance lighting candles to "rekindle the flame of freedom", according to a post made on the Facebook group 'Questioning COVID in Windsor-Essex.'
JP Power helped organize the event and says there are many reasons why people should be standing up.
"Plexi-glass, masks, vaccines, censorship, control. There's three police cars right behind you. What's this all about? We don't think it's about a virus. We think it's about the agenda of control," he says.
A small crowd gathers in downtown Windsor to protest Ontario's new stay-at-home order, issued to prevent the spread of COVID-19. January 13, 2021 (Photo by Alana Hadadean)
Power says the government is infringing on our human rights.
"When the order is stay in your house at 12:01 a.m. or you will be punished, we come out here to say no. We do not deserve punishment for being human beings. We do not deserve punishment for being out here free in nature," he says.
Power says more protests are already in the works.
"I do not want to be doing this at all. Do I look like I'm having fun? This is not a dream, this is real. The ship has sailed. The point of no return has passed," he says. "So, this is it, we are here and this is the Windsor Freedom Movement. Every time they keep taking the freedoms away we will be here to defy it."
Under Ontario's new stay at home order, residents have to stay home except for essential purposes such as grocery shopping, accessing health care and exercising.
Among the new restrictions, outdoor gatherings are now limited to five people while masks are recommended to be worn outdoors and stores offering curbside pickup must limit their hours between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. — essential retailers like grocery stores are exempt.
The order was announced Tuesday as the province declared its second state of emergency since the pandemic began in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.
with files from CTV Windsor's Alana Hadadean