Declaration of Emergency Committee on Oct. 6th, 2022

[Peter Sloly]

What is it like now? I'm a private citizen.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Sure, but I mean before, while you were chief.

[Peter Sloly]

It was highly contentious for the most part, but there were times when we were able to co-operate and find mutual outcomes that supported our membership and the city as well.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

When they say that you lost the room during the course of the command and control during the occupation, did you have the room, or had you lost the room?

[Peter Sloly]

The reference to losing the room was made after I had presented before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on the issue of systemic racism in policing, and I stated emphatically—and I believe I was the first chief in Canada to say this—that systemic racism was part of policing and, in fact, part of every institution.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

They held that against you.

[Peter Sloly]

It was in that context and during the fallout after that. We had a very contentious period with the board and internally. As most organizations grapple with the issue of systemic racism, that's just a matter of course for any CEO.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

I have one last question—

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

I'm sorry, but your time is up. We will move to the next round.

Senator Carignan, go ahead for three minutes.

[Claude Carignan]

I am going to continue in the same vein.

I am having trouble understanding why you resigned. It makes me think of a coach who gets to the Stanley Cup finals and asks for more tools, to go for the win. You asked for police and tools. There was now the option of using the Emergency Measures Act, which, as I understand it, was not essential, but it gave you additional tools. At that moment, though, you decided to resign. You were optimistic that your plan would work, before February 14. I understand the issue of trust and all that, but what happened in the management organization, or in the players' changing room, if I may go back to my comparison, to make you resign or for you to be asked to leave?

[Peter Sloly]

Well, again, you've referenced the two primary issues. Declining public trust creates a public safety risk in any policing organization, any policing environment. The focus of that was increasingly on the Ottawa Police Service for a national security crisis, and increasingly on the officer who held that position, chief of police, which was me. My interpretation—others will have their own opinions—was that a declining level of trust in my officers and in my office was potentially slowing down resources and supports necessary for our officers to be able to safely and successfully end this. I took myself out of the equation because I wasn't going to take 1,400 people out of the equation. That was my last act in office, quite frankly, to speed that up in whatever way I possibly could, at that time, after working many days in a row and many sleepless nights without finding another way to speed up the resources. That was the number one thing we in the Ottawa Police Service needed to come into this city. I don't know if it had the effect I desired, but that was my intent. The primary intent was for public safety, to get those officers into this city, to clear the streets and to get us back to a state of normalcy.

[Claude Carignan]

From what I understand, you felt that the government or the other resources did not trust you, and this delayed additional tools and resources being sent.

[Peter Sloly]

I want to be clear: I'm not drawing any direct line of causation. There was a massive range of public statements from a massive range of civil society actors from all parts of this country, who pointed fingers of blame and described decreasing levels of trust and confidence. All of that combined to create, I believe, problems for people to believe that there was a plan, to believe that we had a level of integration, to believe that we were ultimately going to be able to successfully resolve events, not just here but in many other jurisdictions.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Thank you, Mr. Sloly.

Senator Harder is next.

[Peter Harder]

Thank you, Mr. Sloly. I would like to continue on this. Do you think, had you stayed, that the events would have resolved themselves as they did?

[Peter Sloly]

I can't engage in that conjecture, sir. I'm just glad they ended safely and successfully.

[Peter Harder]

I appreciate that, but I still think there is something that we haven't been able to access yet in your decision-making, and that's the relationship you had with the political leadership in this city, and the sense of a lack of confidence, I guess, that you had the authority within your own police force to resolve this. Were you concerned that your officers would not follow the orders as prescribed in the plan that you developed?

[Peter Sloly]

Not at all, sir.

[Peter Harder]

If you didn't have a lack of confidence from your officers and you didn't have a lack of confidence from your political leadership in the municipality, why resign?

[Peter Sloly]

You asked me this question, I believe: Did I have a lack of confidence that my officers would follow orders? The answer is no. Did we have challenges within the organization, as every other organization did, around coordination, communication and morale? Yes, we did, so it's not a universal, unqualified “I trusted every single person in every single circumstance”. No executive has that benefit, that I am aware of.

Are you asking whether or not there were expressions of lack of confidence from my board, from city councillors, from MPPs and MPs? I think the record is quite clear: There are certainly newspaper articles and open source social media, and I am sure you have access to that information, probably more than even I do at this point.

[Peter Harder]

Were you concerned at all about the officers we saw on screen and who were quoted as being supportive of the convoy and questioning the actions the police were taking?

[Peter Sloly]

I'm only aware of a handful of those. Every complaint that came to me during my time in office was assigned for full investigation. Where there was evidence, I asked for a full prosecution. I don't know the status of those cases, but I can tell you that in literally every single major protest that I have been involved in, in two police jurisdictions, there are human beings who are sworn as police officers who have a level of compassion towards the cause but still rise above their personal feelings and deliver excellent services, even if they may make expressions.

I can tell you that when we had the Black Lives Matter march in 2021, we spent a lot of our operational planning time before the event making sure that we could understand compassionately the feelings of our racialized officers and non-racialized officers who were sympathetic to the causes aligned within Black Lives Matter but could still go out and do their job successfully and safely. They did so. This is not a unique situation in policing.

[Peter Harder]

Do you believe that training with respect to the sentiments of the protesters needs to be incorporated in police training as well?

[Peter Sloly]

I believe it is incorporated, but my recommendations call for new national policing standards, training that supports that, and inspectors general who will make sure it's audited and the data provided to policy-makers and decision-makers going forward.

[Peter Harder]

That's in the document you're—