Ottawa's police chief Peter Sloly resigned on Tuesday after criticism that he did not do enough to stop the protests by truckers that have paralyzed Canada's capital city, Reuters reported.
A trucker-led movement calling on the government to lift COVID-19 vaccine mandates has occupied parts of downtown Ottawa since late January and blocked US border crossings.
The protesters have already retreated from the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit and two other crossings after threats of fines and jail time, but hundreds of trucks are still blocking downtown areas in Ottawa.
Diane Deans, chair of the Ottawa police board, said the city had reached "mutually agreeable separation" with Sloly, without saying why he had stepped down.
In a statement announcing his resignation, Sloly said he had done "everything possible to keep this city safe and put an end to this unprecedented and unforeseeable crisis."
The resignation comes a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers in a bid to quell the trucker protests.
In invoking Canada's Emergencies Act, which gives the federal government broad powers to restore order, Trudeau ruled out using the military.