Evidence of meeting #16 for Declaration of Emergency in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was police.
A video is available from Parliament.
City Manager, City of Ottawa
No, I was asked by Ottawa police to meet with the protesters.
Conservative
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
Okay.
As one of the only people to meet with them, you saw first-hand what they were like.
Mr. Mayor answered this the first time, but do you believe they would have been in a position to vacate, to leave, had they been heard by government?
City Manager, City of Ottawa
I'd say no because they didn't have control over the entire group of people who were here in Ottawa. That's why we ran into trouble, so we were trying to move out the vehicles. Not everybody was part of their group and listening to them.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Mr. Motz.
Mr. Naqvi, you have the floor for five minutes.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Mayor, first of all, thank you very much for your public service. I think you are the longest-serving mayor of the City of Ottawa, and you'll be congratulated for that. In that period—I think you mentioned your having 25 years of public service at different levels of government—you must have seen many protests take place.
How did this particular protest that compare with what you have seen in your public life?
Mayor, City of Ottawa
Thank you, Mr. Naqvi.
Nothing compares with what we saw. This was extraordinary. We're very good at welcoming protesters to Ottawa, as you know—mostly to your riding because they're here for Parliament Hill, the Supreme Court and other important buildings along Wellington Street.
At the end of the day, at virtually all of the protests I've seen over the 25 years that I've been in public life in the City of Ottawa, people arrive; they protest; they give speeches, and then they move on.
This was entirely different in terms of volume, the level of anger that you could see from people, the complete lack of respect of many of the individuals who came here and were involved in activities that were just despicable, and the harm they did to people living in Centretown.
Centretown is a vibrant community, as is Lowertown, which is represented by my friend, Mathieu. The Byward Market and Overbrook—Forbes by the baseball stadium were also affected. There were many documented examples of this kind of boorish behaviour—urinating on the cenotaph, dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, stealing food from the Shepherds of Good Hope, putting placards and the mandate on the Terry Fox statue.
I asked members of Parliament and senators, “If this were happening in your community, would you tolerate it under the guise of free speech?” Absolutely not. You can have free speech, but you can't start to destroy a neighbourhood.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
So you've never seen anything like what you've just described.
How did you feel when you saw some members of Parliament, including the new leader of the opposition, going out there, buying coffee and taking photos with people who were disturbing the lives of the community and who shut down the city?
Mayor, City of Ottawa
Well, the best way to describe that behaviour is that it's disrespectful. It's disrespectful to the people of Ottawa, particularly since the now-leader of the opposition is an MP from Ottawa. Many of his constituents would have worked downtown, and much of downtown was shut down. We had just got out of the lockdown as a result of COVID-19 and the stores and restaurants were finally starting to open, and then there was another lockdown caused by the convoy.
It was not helpful at all to be mugging with selfie sticks and taking pictures with the convoy. Our city was hurting. We needed some empathy and sympathy, and not these kinds of tactics.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
Mr. Fleury, I got hundreds of emails in my community office from residents and businesses who were hurting. What kinds of issues, specific cases, were there? Could you give some examples of what you were hearing through your ward office as the local councillor?
City Councillor, City of Ottawa
The range was very wide, so I'm only going to share a few examples. As you know, Rideau Street is an important transit hub. It connects both local transit routes from the western part of Centretown and the eastern part of the city, which connect at the Rideau Centre with our light rail. Having to close those local routes added a number of pressures for the folks trying to access, for example, hospitals and their workplaces. There were a number of situations where local businesses that wanted to open could not, because the deliveries couldn't make it to those businesses.
I spoke in my earlier statement about the issues of livability. You live beside the parliamentary precinct, but that's your home. That's your city. You usually walk to your coffee shop, and you couldn't do that, because there was noise and intimidation and aggression. When you were in your own unit, it was not quiet. There were constant horns and smells.
On your ability to travel, on your ability to do business, and on your ability to live safely, as a city, we weren't able to uphold our responsibility for the well-being and safety of residents.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
Mr. Kanellakos, I've got a few seconds left.
Did the 311 call volume go up during that period? Was there a marked difference in the calls?
City Manager, City of Ottawa
Yes, we had over 18,000 calls. At one point, I thought it was double our normal volume. I don't think it was quite double, but it was significantly higher.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
Was there any sense of what kinds of complaints you were receiving through those 311calls?
City Manager, City of Ottawa
They were mostly the bylaw types of calls regarding nuisances: fires, fireworks, noise, parking issues, and people urinating and using outdoor premises to go to the washroom. We were receiving all kinds of nuisance bylaw types of complaints.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Mr. Naqvi. You are over time.
Since I am the next speaker, would Mr. Green or Senator Boniface like to take the chair?
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you for being with us this evening, gentlemen.
Mr. Watson, I listened to your presentation. I'd like you to tell me a little more about how you view the role you had to play during the events.
I understand a lot of stakeholders were involved. There was the chief of the Ottawa Police Service, Mr. Ayotte in Emergency and Protective Services, the Parliamentary Protective Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
As mayor of Ottawa, how would you define the role you had to play during the events?
Mayor, City of Ottawa
Thank you for your question.
Since the mayor is definitely responsible for working with the provincial and federal governments, I spoke with Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Ford and various ministers, and there definitely was a lot of cooperation with local MPs, such as Mr. Navqi and Minister Fortier, since their ridings were affected by the protests.
I was also responsible for providing support to the police service, but, as you know, politicians can't direct police operations because that's against the laws of Canada and the Province of Ontario.
So I spoke with the ministers and the mayors of other cities to solicit their help when we needed tow trucks and police officers. I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Mr. Tory, who offered a lot of resources to assist us in responding to the crisis in our city.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
You say you spoke to those people partly so you could bring in some tow trucks. What exactly did you do about the tow trucks? You helped, but, as I understand it, no tow trucks were available, or no one wanted to intervene.
Mayor, City of Ottawa
I'll give you a specific example. I spoke with Mr. Tory, who gave me the telephone numbers of three or four towing companies.
However, my priority in my discussions with the other levels of government was to request additional police officers. We needed 1,800 officers to assist our police service because it couldn't control the situation alone.
First, we had talks and lobbied for more human resources. Second, I had to speak with other mayors to see if I could get information in order to call in more tow trucks.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
You say you had a few telephone numbers. Could you tell us how many you had and for what businesses? What towing companies did you call?
Mayor, City of Ottawa
I didn't make any calls personally. Members of my staff, such as Mr. Kanellakos, handled that. The problem was that local towing companies refused to work during the protest because they feared for their safety and that of their trucks.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
How many companies did you call, Mr. Watson? You told me you had some telephone numbers. How many did you have?
