Declaration of Emergency Committee on Oct. 6th, 2022

[Peter Sloly]

You said it, sir. I was a deputy chief for a significant tenure during Chief Blair's time, and I was given some of the biggest operational responsibilities during that time.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

On the Friday before the Emergencies Act was invoked, the Prime Minister said that he did not “accept the contention” that you had exhausted the resources available to you.

Now, Mr. Sloly, did the Prime Minister know what he was talking about? Did you have—

[Peter Sloly]

Again, I am not aware of a statement like that. I can tell you that we exhausted every resource we could possibly put on the field, and we put our people through more than they humanly should have been put through.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

I'm sorry, Mr. Motz, but your five minutes are up.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Was that on 1.5 time or was it on regular time?

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

It was on regular time, sir.

Mr. Lamoureux, go ahead.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I think we have to really bring it down to taking advantage of an opportunity we have before us.

Mr. Sloly, you are an individual who has served for many years with the Toronto police force. You came to Ottawa. You ran the Ottawa Police Service. That tells me you have a great deal of experience.

When it comes to situations like the one that came up not that long ago, we like to think we tap the minds of individuals who have the expertise. I would find it very difficult to find someone who is better suited, knowing Ottawa as well as you do, knowing the force as well you do and given the background you have.

You're telling this committee today that your primary goal, from what I understand, was to assess the risk and to ensure public safety and the safety of your law enforcement officers. Is that a fair assessment, what I was just mentioning?

[Peter Sloly]

Public safety, yes, which includes the safety of our police service members. Yes, sir.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

You also made it very clear that whether it was the municipality of Ottawa, the Province of Ontario or Ottawa—the Government of Canada—invoking the Emergencies Act was beneficial and allowed for the successful displacement of the convoy. Is that a fair assessment?

[Peter Sloly]

I described it as a whole-of-Canada effort, and that includes the declarations of emergency at the three levels of government.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

There's no doubt in your mind that having those tools that were given by all three levels of government gave a strategic advantage to law enforcement so that they could clear it in the manner in which they did.

[Peter Sloly]

I prefer not to use the term “law enforcement”, but it provided additional tools and capabilities to the police services. I can specifically talk about this police service here up until my last day in office. Yes, sir.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

There's no doubt in your mind on that.

[Peter Sloly]

They were definitely advantages that came that allowed for a quicker and ultimately safe and successful conclusion to the events here in Ottawa. Yes, sir.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Okay.

We make reference, for example, to tow trucks. The federal legislation enabled.... The Province of Alberta raised concerns that it could not get tow trucks. I suspect you might have heard some feedback on that. Having the legislation there would have given the confidence that you would be able to access the tow trucks. Is that a fair comment?

[Peter Sloly]

Again, I can't speak to what took place in Alberta, but I did hear that feedback in my discussions with Commissioner Lucki about what was taking place in Coutts, and from other police leaders, yes.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Sure.

When I think about safety, I was shocked when we found out there were all sorts of weapons in the province of Alberta. I walked all the way down Wellington, from Lisgar and Metcalfe, down Metcalfe and then up. Then I would go into West Block or the Wellington Building.

I'd pass all these trucks and I would often wonder, what's in the cabs? You hear about these weapons that were found. Was there any discussion in terms of what types of things could be in the trucks—the semi trucks, the cabs—what might be there?

[Peter Sloly]

There were constant discussions around weapons or weapons that could actually just be converted from normal items, including the use of a vehicle. Yes, sir, every single day.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Would it be fair for me to say that was a legitimate concern? Did the people who were in control, our law enforcement officers, have in the back of their mind that there could be weapons, then? Is that fair to say?

[Peter Sloly]

No, sir, it wouldn't. We had a healthy discussion on a daily basis around what we knew from an intelligence basis. If you're describing weapons as prohibited weapons—switch-blade knives, firearms or whatever the case may be—we had those discussions. The weapons we were more concerned about were, quite frankly, vehicles and other things that could be converted very quickly into different ways to harm public safety, to affect public safety.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Can you give just a quick overview of what you believe when you think of the organizers? It wasn't one organizer; there was a multitude of different people who were organizing the convoy. A lot of them surprised us. Some were former police officers. They were from all sorts of backgrounds. Can you give a thought in terms of how that might have impacted the potential volatility of the convoy itself?

[Peter Sloly]

From my understanding, there were experts from a range of fields, from medical to legal, but certainly the presence of former national security, military and police members within some of the core coordinating capabilities of the events around the convoys was a significant threat risk factor we had not seen on that type of scale in my experience. I've also heard from other police chiefs that it was a significant factor. Yes, sir.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

This situation was in fact truly a national security crisis from your perspective. It was unique and had all sorts of potential to have weaponry and so forth.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Mr. Sloly, maybe you can answer the question very quickly, please. I think you have enough to work with.

[Peter Sloly]

Yes, it was a national security crisis, sir.