A trucker who was seen on viral video being beaten by Ottawa police during the “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations said the officers “broke my body a little bit” but not his spirit.
Romanian-born Csaba Vizi, a 20-year resident of Canada, said on Fox News on Monday that he expected to be arrested, but not attacked by cops, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act.
“I got down from my truck, I went down right on my knee, I put my hands behind my head,” Vizi told Tucker Carlson.
“I was waiting for them to take me away. In that moment, the police officers — they start to punch me with those sticks, they were yelling to me, ‘Go back! Go back!’ And I just told them, ‘Hey, I’m the driver,’” he said.
“They drag me in, they lie me down on my belly, and I don’t — I don’t recall how many were on top of me … I felt like I was beaten, but I took it like a man,” Vizi continued.
When asked if he was injured during the incident, the driver said, “Yes. They broke my body a little bit, but not my spirit.”
On Sunday, Ottawa police sought to clear out the remaining “Freedom Convoy” demonstrators — ending a 24-day occupation of the city’s center to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The convoy of trucks had caused traffic backups in the city for weeks.
A total of 191 protesters were arrested and 57 vehicles were towed since police began forcefully removing them Friday. Most of those arrested were slapped with mischief charges, cops said.
Ottawa represented the movement’s final stronghold after three weeks of trucker demonstrations and American border blockades created a political crisis for Trudeau.
He invoked Canada’s Emergencies Act for the first time in the country’s history, giving the federal government broad power to restore order, including freezing protesters’ financial accounts.
Before being beaten, Vizi told Fox News Digital, he believed the warnings to leave or potentially be arrested were just another scare tactic by Trudeau.
“Those who are willing to give their life for this cause, need much more than being threatened with arrest, with fines, with losing insurance,” he told the outlet Thursday.
“I moved to Canada — everything was wonderful … I was so happy. I said jeez, that is so nice. Everything was beautiful in the last 20 years, I can say,” he told Fox News.
“But the last two years, it’s like impossible to live here anymore,” he added.