Evidence of meeting #14 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 officers.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Joint Chair  Hon. Gwen Boniface (Senator, Ontario, ISG)
Peter Sloly  Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual
Larry W. Campbell  Senator, British Columbia, CSG
Claude Carignan  Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
Peter Harder  Senator, Ontario, PSG
Joint Clerk of the Committee  Ms. Miriam Burke
Joint Clerk  Mr. Mark Palmer

6:30 p.m.

The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface (Senator, Ontario, ISG)

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting 14 of the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency created pursuant to the order of the House of March 2, 2022, and of the Senate of March 3, 2022.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to House and Senate orders. Should any technical challenges arise, please advise me, as we may need to suspend for a few minutes to ensure that all members are able to participate fully.

We have with us today former Ottawa police chief Mr. Peter Sloly.

Mr. Sloly, you will have five minutes for opening remarks. The floor is yours. Please begin whenever you're ready.

6:30 p.m.

Peter Sloly Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Thank you very much, Chair.

Good evening. I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to assist you in your important work reviewing the declaration of the Emergencies Act.

The commission of inquiry chaired by Justice Rouleau will begin public hearings next week, and I will be a party to the commission. I have supported, and will continue to support, government-related inquiries and initiatives to improve policing and public safety in Canada. At the federal government level, I have previously appeared before the PROC standing committee regarding expanding the federal jurisdiction for the security of the parliamentary precinct, the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security regarding systemic racism in policing, and the Prime Minister's listening circle regarding policing reform. I was also the co-chair for Public Safety Canada's national expert committee on countering radicalization to violence. My participation in these federal government consultations, committees and inquiries is part of my ongoing effort to help build a more safe, just and inclusive society.

In addition to my former role as the chief of the Ottawa Police Service, I bring to this committee over three decades of private and public sector experience in the areas of security, policing and justice. My experience includes two tours of duty in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. I've played lead roles in planning, implementing and managing a variety of multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional police and security operations.

The police leaders, national security leaders and senior public officials who have appeared before this and other standing committees studying the “freedom convoy” events have stated that this was an unprecedented and unforeseen national security crisis. It was a crisis fuelled by social media disinformation and societal polarization; a crisis that introduced new threats and risk factors; a crisis in which actions by police could face stiff and determined resistance, potentially leading to greater unrest and instability; a crisis that exceeded the capacity of the local police in places like Coutts, Windsor and Ottawa; and a crisis that exposed long-standing structural deficits in our public institutions, including police agencies and national security organizations.

That said, these events also galvanized the country and demonstrated the ability of our national security organizations, police agencies, public institutions, elected officials, civic leaders and just plain regular Canadians to resolve a highly volatile national security crisis without any loss of life or serious bodily harm.

The events around the “freedom convoy” represented a paradigm shift in terms of scale, planning, logistics, finances, counter-intelligence, civil disobedience, etc. What started as an anti-vaccine demonstration rapidly evolved and was co-opted by different ideologically radicalized individuals and insurgency movements. The intended demonstrations in the nation's capital turned into occupations, fortifications and/or economic disruptions across Canada, the greatest impacts of which affected the city of Ottawa.

To be clear, the Ottawa Police Service did its best to deal with this perfect storm that broke first and most on our city. From the onset, we actively sought intelligence, continuously updated operational plans and constantly tried to secure the needed resources to end the crisis safely and successfully. We deployed all available OPS resources to try to manage the fluid and metastasizing situation while also trying to provide adequate and effective police services to the rest of the one million residents in Canada's largest geographical municipality. We served, suffered and struggled 24 hours a day for weeks alongside our local residents, business owners, city workers and public safety partners. We enforced bylaws, provincial statutes and criminal offences where we could do so safely and without further escalating an already highly volatile situation. We assisted other police agencies, national security organizations and public officials to better understand and respond to the rapidly evolving and expanding national security crisis.

That is why on January 30 I worked with OPP commissioner Tom Carrique to convene meetings with police leaders from across the country to share updated threat intelligence information and operational lessons learned.

That is why on February 2 I stated that there may not be a policing solution to this. I made this statement not to abdicate local policing responsibilities but to alert government officials and civil society leaders that an end to the national security crisis may require resources, legislation and operational capabilities greater than those available to the OPS and other police services of jurisdiction across Canada.

That is why on February 7 I formally requested that 1,800 additional officers from across Canada come to Ottawa.

That is why on February 9 I led the efforts to significantly update our plan, including the expansion of the integrated command structure under the leadership of the OPS.

That is why the new integrated capabilities, combined with the efforts of our OPP and RCMP partners, resulted in the cross-Canada recruitment of almost 2,000 officers who were utilized to implement the OPS plan, a plan that leveraged the additional powers of the various emergency declarations and injunctions.

This whole-of-country effort ultimately collapsed the local events in Ottawa while accelerating the safe, successful end to the national security crisis.

That said, the societal issues and structural deficits that underpin this unprecedented national security crisis are still largely unresolved, so the threat of another such occurrence happening again remains, and there is an urgent need to learn all we can from these events.

I have been doing and will continue to do everything within my power to share information with the various committees and inquiries, as well as to make recommendations on how to better prevent, mitigate, respond to and recover from such crises in the future.

I conclude by recognizing everyone who was negatively impacted by this national security crisis, especially Ottawa residents, businesses and city workers.

I thank the members of the Ottawa Police Service, as well as those of our policing and national security partners, who were professional, ethical, brave and compassionate in their efforts to help safely and successfully resolve the crisis.

Madam Chair, I welcome questions from the committee, and I thank you for inviting me here today.

6:35 p.m.

The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface

Thank you very much, Mr. Sloly. You're right on time.

I'll move to Mr. Motz for the first question.

6:35 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

Thank you very much.

Mr. Sloly, thank you so much for your service, both in the military and in policing in this country.

It wasn't clear, but you were the chief of police in the Ottawa Police Service for the “freedom convoy”, and you had that position up until the day after the Emergencies Act was invoked on February 15. Is that correct?

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

That's correct, sir.

6:40 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

In the weeks in advance of the arrival of the convoy in Ottawa, did convoy organizers seek permissions and direction from the Ottawa Police Service and/or the City of Ottawa on where and how to park in the downtown core?

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

Prior to the arrival, there were negotiations and communications between some of the convoy elements. Those communications included efforts from the Ontario Provincial Police and, yes, from the Ottawa Police Service, specifically our police liaison teams.

6:40 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

In other words, they were seeking permission on where to park, and that permission—from the city and from the Ottawa Police Service—was provided to them. It included emergency lanes on Wellington and side streets, etc. Is that correct?

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

“Permissions” isn't a word I would normally use. There were communications and negotiations around how best to reduce the public safety impact of such a large gathering and demonstration in the city, and there were some successful and constructive efforts from both parties, both the police services and the organizers.

6:40 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

Would it be fair to suggest, sir, that throughout the protesters being here—the “freedom convoy”—members of the OPS and staff from the City of Ottawa, from what I understand, had continued dialogue and communication with organizers of that protest?

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

Dialogue and communication continued from the weeks before all the way through, to my understanding, until my last day in office anyway.

6:40 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

Good. That is important, and I'll get to it in a minute, but as the convoy protest continued, obviously, given your background and experience, you and your team developed operational plans as to how best to manage and disperse the protest. Is that correct?

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

Ultimately, plans were updated on a regular basis, and the ultimate goal was to end the events here in Ottawa safely and successfully.

6:40 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

Okay. I'm sure my colleague, Mr. Brock, will get into the details of those plans, but you appeared before another parliamentary committee this spring and said you had asked the federal government for “[l]iterally everything that we could think of....” Now, did that include a request from the government to invoke the Emergencies Act?

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

There were no explicit conversations that I had with other levels of government regarding declarations of the Emergencies Act at all three levels.

6:40 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

Did anyone else within the Ottawa Police Service ask for the government to invoke the Emergencies Act?

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

Sorry, I have one correction to my previous answer: We did have conversations with the City of Ottawa around their emergency, but not the other two levels of government.

Could you just repeat your question for me, sir?

6:40 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

Did anyone else within your police service ask the federal government to invoke the Emergencies Act, that you're aware of?

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

Not that I'm aware of, sir.

6:40 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

Now, what support did your police service request from the federal government during the convoy protest? Did the federal government provide you with the resources you requested in order for you to be maintaining order in Ottawa?

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

The primary requests that I made on a continual basis were for resources, particularly more police officers and police-trained personnel, and secondarily, access to tow trucks. It was predictable access to a large number of officers—1,800—and access to predictable, sustainable levels of heavy tow trucks.

6:40 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

You asked for that.

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

Yes, sir.

6:40 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

Did the government provide you with any indication that it was something that you were going to receive?

6:40 p.m.

Chief of Police (Retired), Ottawa Police Service, As an Individual

Peter Sloly

We received supports from both provincial and federal governments right from the beginning. Prior to the arrival, we received OPP officers and RCMP officers, and we had that support throughout.

After the official request for 1,800, there was a greater level of integration within our command structure, and we started to see a greater inflow of those resources, particularly over the last three to four days of my time in office, sir.