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.
9:25 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Excuse me, Mr. Brock, your speaking time is over.
Mr. Naqvi you have the floor for five minutes.
9:25 p.m.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
I think the witness is asking for an opportunity to respond to the speech that was just made impugning his credibility.
9:25 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
I understand. Thank you, Mr. Virani.
Mr. Watson, I'll give you just a few seconds to answer briefly.
9:30 p.m.
Mayor, City of Ottawa
Very briefly, Mr. Chair, thank you.
Mr. Brock indicated I'm a former staffer for a Liberal member of Parliament. I was a former staffer for a Conservative member of Parliament. Secondly, we were concerned that Mr. Ford had time to go snowmobiling, but no time to come to visit the second-largest city in Ontario, the fourth-largest in Canada, when we were at the mercy of this mob that had taken over our city. So, yes—
9:30 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Mr. Watson, you'll be able to finish answering in the next round of questions.
I said that Mr. Naqvi had five minutes, but it's rather four minutes. He has the floor now.
9:30 p.m.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Actually, looking at a news story from April 25, 2020—
9:30 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Excuse me, Mr. Naqvi. I've noticed that I made a mistake. I gave Mr. Brock the floor for five minutes, so you are entitled to five minutes as well. However, in the next round of questions, everyone will have just three minutes.
Please go ahead for five minutes.
9:30 p.m.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm actually looking at an article from April 25, 2020, where it says “Ontario Premier Doug Ford called anti-lockdown protesters at Queen's Park on Saturday 'a bunch of yahoos' and said they were being 'selfish' and 'irresponsible' for demonstrating against provincial emergency orders in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.” So I'm sure Mr. Brock will direct his comments to the Premier of Ontario as well.
Mr. Mayor, you testified at the public inquiry that “A number of children had to miss chemo and radiation appointments at CHEO,” which is our children's hospital. I was taken aback by that testimony, because as a resident of the city, I was not aware of that, and as a father of two young kids who use CHEO often, my heart sank. Can you elaborate on that part of your testimony as to how that happened?
9:30 p.m.
Mayor, City of Ottawa
Yes, and also for the hospitals we have a lot of our health care workers, particularly nurses, who come from the province of Quebec and have to travel over our bridge system to get to the Montfort Hospital in the east end or CHEO in the south end, and as you know, most of the bridges were shut down as a result of the challenges. There was one bridge designated for health care workers where they would have to go through a checkpoint, which slowed everything down. The Montfort had to rent hotel rooms close to the hospital so that their staff could actually go sleep over to meet their shift the next morning or the next evening.
Alex Munter, the president of CHEO—the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario—stated very recently that 13 families—I believe it was—had to have their chemotherapy appointments for their children cancelled because during that period of time the traffic flow was not going where it should have. These were people who were from outside of Ottawa, because CHEO serves all of eastern Ontario, and there was a fear of bringing children into the downtown core. These are not made-up stories—the president of CHEO is not spinning a tale—these are facts that put these children at risk as a result of this behaviour of these people who came to protest.
We have nothing against protesters, as Steve Kanellakos says, we're very good at welcoming protesters, but this was an occupation of our downtown.
9:30 p.m.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
Councillor Fleury, perhaps I may ask a personal question. I know you have spoken about the personal impact of this occupation on you and your family's life. If you're comfortable, would you share a little bit as to what you went through as a stellar representative of your community and trying to help them during the crisis.
9:30 p.m.
City Councillor, City of Ottawa
After that first weekend I was one of the first elected members locally to say that we have to go after the funds, to get the demonstrators to go back home, so that we could get our life back locally. I was pretty clear that we had to go to the source of what was keeping folks in Ottawa.
A number of individuals showed up at my house with pickup trucks and flags, and threatened.... I have a young family at home. Finally, we had to move out. I had to focus, obviously. I had to move my family out of the area so that I could focus on the crisis.
As you're well aware, I was hosting daily meetings with all elected members in both my community and in yours. You were part of many of those. We brought all the stakeholders, including General Manager Ayotte. We had police representation. We had the hotel...tourism, local BIAs, local community associations. I had to focus on the crisis and what I could do as an elected member. I was certainly not naive about the situation; I was quite active on the situation.
It's an uncomfortable position, because I want people to run for office, but when people show up at your house, and you have a young family, you do have a responsibility as a father.
9:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
Thank you.
It's getting me emotional thinking about what people went through. You're one example of so many stories. I have emails upon emails here that I had from constituents. Some are for you guys, and you are copied too, and I'm sure you received them. There are some horrific personal examples of what people went through, because it was not a peaceful protest. It was not a lawful protest. It was an occupation of our city.
Thank you both for your public service. We sincerely appreciate it.
9:35 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Mr. Naqvi.
Mr. Green, I have the floor for five minutes and you are now back in the chair.
9:35 p.m.
NDP
9:35 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Mr. Green.
Mr. Watson, on a few occasions, you answered that you were fairly close to Chief Sloly. You were in touch with him on a regular basis, sometimes several times a day. You mentioned earlier that it could be every couple of hours. I'm not surprised.
How did you react when you learned that Chief Sloly wanted to resign?
9:35 p.m.
Mayor, City of Ottawa
I was concerned, because at the same time the chair of the police board had decided to sign a contract with another chief. As I mentioned earlier this was a situation where we had three chiefs in three days, so I did not support that move. As a result, the individual who was approached by the police board declined the opportunity. I think he saw what an environment he was getting into, and then—
9:35 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
I just want to talk about Chief Sloly. With respect, I don't want us to move away from the subject, because three minutes goes by quickly.
Do you know why Chief Sloly resigned?
9:35 p.m.
Mayor, City of Ottawa
It's my understanding that the police services board did not have confidence in the chief, and that was the reason why he was offered a severance package of some sort, and he stepped down. Chief Bell was—
9:35 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
His team of officers lacked confidence in him. Did you ever witness this yourself, or is it something that was reported to you?
9:35 p.m.
Mayor, City of Ottawa
No, I didn't, because I was not a member of the police services board. Any of the activity that was taking place in—
9:35 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Who told you that Chief Sloly was resigning because his team of officers had lost confidence in him?
