Evidence of meeting #13 for Declaration of Emergency in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
Acting Director, Parliamentary Protective Service
Through you, Mr. Chair, there's one point of clarification. I would never use the term “flabbergasted”. That would fall to my colleague, Mr. McDonell.
Acting Director, Parliamentary Protective Service
You notice how he's quiet now. He's not opening his mike.
Through you, Mr. Chair, again, the decisions of the Ottawa Police Service during that time belong to the Ottawa Police Service and the police board that was in charge of that service at the time.
Conservative
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
This was in the presence of cruisers, and this was in the presence of both uniformed and non-uniformed officers. Is that correct?
Sergeant-at-Arms and Corporate Security Officer, House of Commons
I didn't witness any police in civilian attire. What was happening every day was that our employees were being harassed. I think the “flabbergasted” comment was relative to the entrance that we made into our parking lots in front of the Supreme Court. We had employees pulling in and out of there every day. There was banging on the cars and there was a police cruiser within sight, a police cruiser witnessing it, and nobody exiting the police cruiser.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
This was reported to the Ottawa Police Service almost on a daily basis. Is that correct?
Sergeant-at-Arms and Corporate Security Officer, House of Commons
I don't know if it was on a daily basis. I think we gave up at a certain point, and Larry put a car down there.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Did you speak directly with former chief Sloly about this issue?
Sergeant-at-Arms and Corporate Security Officer, House of Commons
No, I did not.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
All right.
You'll agree with me that there was a suggestion by the government in relation to the silly words used by some of the protesters, that they were trying to overthrow the government and speak with the Governor General and have a new form of government to take over this country. I put that to Justice Lametti when he testified earlier at this committee. He thought that was a silly statement. Did either of you take that as a serious threat to national security?
Acting Director, Parliamentary Protective Service
Through you, Mr. Chair, no, I did not.
Sergeant-at-Arms and Corporate Security Officer, House of Commons
That started in January 2019. It was James Bauder, with his convoy. He didn't gain much traction, and no, I didn't take that comment seriously.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
That concludes the four minutes.
We will now pass the floor to Ms. Bendayan.
Ms. Bendayan, you have four minutes. The floor is yours.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for appearing before us today.
I'll go quite quickly, given that time is limited.
Mr. Brookson, you indicated that at no time was the precinct breached, but isn't it true that you were blocking access to Parliament Hill? I came to the chamber every single day during the convoy, and I was instructed to go through a very specific entry point, at which point I had to present an ID. So isn't it true that you actually blocked access to the precinct?
Acting Director, Parliamentary Protective Service
Through you, Mr. Chair.
During times of heightened security measures there are going to be some heightened restrictions. My apologies if there was any sort of element of you feeling that you were blocked from coming to work. The service does what it can in doing what it needs to do. We continue to work, and I know we had to augment and shift the points of entry that we felt were the safest for our parliamentarians.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
I understand, but that's in part why there was no breach of the precinct. You in fact blocked access to the precinct.
You mentioned earlier that you didn't know what was in the vehicles that were on Wellington Street. You actually testified before the PROC committee that there was a technology gap, and I'm quoting here. You stated, “It was considered to be unsafe for some of those members to walk through that street and sense vehicles.”
Can you be a little more precise as to what your concern was? What could have been in those vehicles?
Acting Director, Parliamentary Protective Service
Through you, Mr. Chair, for me, it's just not knowing what's in those vehicles that concerns me, without needing to have a sense of the specificity. My request in previous testimony was that it's not a specialty of the service itself to do the checking of what vehicles are. That was a request that I made to one of the partners.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
Mr. McDonell, you stated, in connection to the vehicles on Wellington Street, that, “We voiced our frustration with what was happening. It was almost a daily occurrence.”
You voiced your frustration to the police of jurisdiction. Is that right?
Sergeant-at-Arms and Corporate Security Officer, House of Commons
We went back through Larry. Our employees were calling in. They weren't getting any sort of response, so they would take their complaints to their managers.
September 29th, 2022 / 7:30 p.m.
Sergeant-at-Arms and Corporate Security Officer, House of Commons
Nothing ever happened. The police posture was on the outside of the demonstration. They were never on the inside of the demonstration, so there was no police officer to be seen at—