Thank you, Senator Boniface.
Again, your own experience will play this out. In many occasions, there is a singular organizing body or a significant influencer within a protest group. This was not the case. There were significant efforts by multiple jurisdictions and multiple agencies at all three levels of policing to seek negotiated agreements, reasonable understandings and commitments, but there was never a unified “other” with which any police agency could come to any substantive understanding as to whether what was agreed to would actually happen on the day of.
In fact, on the day of, we were joined by thousands of other individuals and groups with whom we had never had a chance to communicate, never mind negotiate. Therefore, at no time during my period in office, up until February 15, could I ever say to you or this body that we had an understanding with “the” protesters, “the” occupiers, “the” convoy leaders.