Declaration of Emergency Committee on Oct. 6th, 2022

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Answer that very briefly, Mr. Sloly.

[Peter Sloly]

We were focused on providing a safe outcome for what turned out to be an unprecedented, paradigm-shifting event. There were so many impacts that happened, good and bad. I couldn't begin to list them for you, sir. I apologize.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Mr. Virani, you have four minutes.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Sloly.

I'll repeat what everyone has said about your public service. Thank you for it. Thank you for appearing today.

I'm going to go a bit fast.

In response to, I think, Senator Harder, you said that removing the ability of people to come downtown to protest helped because it helped with the removal, eventually, of the trucks. Police officers effectively weren't looking over their shoulders. There was only the task at hand, and there weren't more people coming in.

The Emergencies Act declaration specifically said that it was prohibited to come for a public assembly “that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace” other than “lawful advocacy, protest or dissent”.

Do you agree with the terms of the declaration?

[Peter Sloly]

I haven't read the declaration in any detail. I take you at your word that you are reading from the document.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Okay.

The people who were coming downtown were coming for an unlawful purpose. Those are the people who would have been prevented, pursuant to what I just read.

[Peter Sloly]

Again, I don't have an independent recollection of the document, so I will take you at your word.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Okay.

When you were trying to remove the tow trucks, children were observed to be in and around the blockade that was on Wellington and elsewhere.

Is that correct?

[Peter Sloly]

Intelligence came to me in the middle of this that there were vulnerable people living in and around the red zone areas and other parts of the theatre. That significantly increased the risk factors we were dealing with.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Going in and removing the trucks was impeded by the fact that there were children you didn't want to endanger.

[Peter Sloly]

There was a large range of other high-risk factors. For me, that was one of the top high-risk factors, yes, sir.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Efforts that might have been made, and were eventually made, to remove minors from the situation would have facilitated safe policing and safe removal of the trucks.

[Peter Sloly]

That was mission critical for me. I suspect it was even after I left office.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

That's actually entrenched in the documentation.

I am reading from another regulation that was passed. This is SOR/2022-21, which says at 4(2) that, “A person must not cause a person under the age of eighteen years to travel to or within 500 metres of an area where an assembly referred to [as an unlawful assembly] is taking place.”

That kind of language, if enforced, actually facilitates your policing and the safe removal of the child.

[Peter Sloly]

Removing vulnerable persons from a theatre like that was a critically important aspect.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

We heard a lot about media reports about efforts where tow trucks were attempted to be utilized. The trucking companies themselves admitted to receiving threats and feeling scared in assisting the Ottawa Police Service with removing some of these blockading vehicles.

Did that occur? Do you have any understanding of that?

[Peter Sloly]

That was intelligence provided to me throughout the course of what took place here in the city of Ottawa and intelligence provided to me from other locations, including Coutts, Alberta, through Commissioner Lucki.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Okay.

I mentioned the minors, but the Emergencies Act declaration also talked about the ability to effectively commandeer the use of tow trucks, including the large trucks that eventually facilitated the removal of the vehicles.

[Peter Sloly]

There were specific references around accessing towing resources. Again, I don't have the exact language. Commandeering isn't something I can state was in there explicitly.

By default, it would be the ability of police to predictably obtain sufficient tow resources, yes.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

You talked about the need for police resources. You mentioned the 1,800 figure and eventually landed at 2,000.

From my understanding through these committee hearings we've been having, it's one thing to have the police on the ground—you wanted police on the ground—but once they're on the ground in Ottawa, it's another thing to have them actually sworn in and able to execute their functions.

The swearing-in process, under normal circumstances, can take some time. Is that correct?

[Peter Sloly]

It can take time. It always does. There are practices in place, particularly here in Ottawa, for multi-jurisdictional events.

Anything that speeds up the time for an officer to be fully deployable within the theatre under the Ottawa Police Service's incident command reduces the threat to public safety. Time and resources were critical.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Did the Emergencies Act declaration, which provided for the mass swearing-in of police officers—multiple officers at a time—speed things up?

[Peter Sloly]

Again, after my time in office, I can't give you a first-hand explanation. From a logic model, it would have, but you'd have to put that question to interim chief Bell and the incident commanders at that time, after I left.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Thank you.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Mr. Virani, your time is up.

Mr. Fortin, you have three minutes.