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.
