Canada seeking to stifle voices of dissent: Gharibabadi

"Pressing ahead with its heavy-handed clampdown on protesters, the Canadian police are now wearing LRADs (long-range acoustic devices). LRADs can cause significant damage to auditory nerves. Another brazen move to stifle the voices of dissent! Hush! Canadian protesters don’t scream!," wrote Kazem Gharibabadi in a tweet on Tuesday morning.

"Individuals exposed to weaponized LRAD use at the 2009 G20 Summit experienced mild traumatic brain injuries, permanent hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), eardrum perforation (holes), ear pain, dizziness, and disorientation," he added.

In a tweet on Monday, Gharibabadi also criticized the crackdown on protests in Canada and wrote, "Peaceful protesters in the so-called Land of the Free are shushed, and guess what? Nobody ever dares to talk about egregious human rights violations taking place on a daily basis in Canada. Well, the critics may have been shushed, too."

His tweets came as Police in riot gear cleared the main protest hub in downtown Ottawa Saturday, using batons and pepper spray, smashing truck windows and arresting dozens of die-hard protesters as they moved to finally end a weeks-long siege of the Canadian capital.

After a night marked by clashes, protesters – some in body armour – held firm, linking arms and hurling gas canisters and smoke grenades at advancing police, while chanting "freedom."

But by midday police, backed by tactical vehicles and overwatched by snipers, said they had cleared Wellington Street in front of parliament – the epicentre of the trucker-led demonstrations which began almost a month ago in protest at COVID vaccine rules.

MNA/RN84658610