Declaration of Emergency Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2022

[D/Chief Patricia Ferguson]

As the chief indicated, we were part of some conversations around injunctions and the benefits such a tool would have. Ultimately it was a decision by the City of Ottawa as to whether they were going to seek that or not, and obviously they did, several days after our young lady received hers.

[Claude Carignan]

Did you have a plan—

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Senator, your time is up.

If Mr. Green could take the chair, I'll do the next question.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Senator, the floor is yours.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Thank you very much.

Chief Bell, I have three minutes here, and there are a couple of things I'd like to get clear, if I may.

First of all, the province declared an emergency. What effect did that have or what assistance did that provide to you?

[Chief Steve Bell]

The EMCPA that was declared by the province gave tools around commercial vehicles, movement of vehicles into the city or movement in towards protests. It was one of the layers and building blocks that we utilized in our plan.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

From the perspective of how it impacted the occupation itself, can you tell me whether or not it flagged...? Did people leave? I'm trying to get to the point of whether or not these “layers”, as you call them, had any effect.

[Chief Steve Bell]

Absolutely. One of the key things we were trying to manage at the time was the influx that we continually saw of people into the downtown core. The EMCPA specifically gave abilities to deter or divert people from coming into the downtown core and to arrest them if their intention was to come into our area. Although it didn't actually help remove them, one of the key struggles we had was creating a stable and safe environment so we could execute the large plan that you saw.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Yes, I understand.

A gentleman by the name of Dean French initiated some negotiations, according to the mayor's testimony last week. Are you aware if any of your members were involved in those negotiations, and what was the intent of the negotiations?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Our members were not directly involved in any of those negotiations, to my knowledge. I believe there was an initial introduction that was made between our police liaison team members through to the city manager, Steve Kanellakos, and organizers of the convoy, but we weren't directly involved in any interactions with Mr. French.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Whatever Mr. French's instructions were, you were not involved in consultation or input into those instructions.

[Chief Steve Bell]

That's correct. We were not involved in those negotiations.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Okay. Can you tell me from an intelligence perspective what your concerns may have been with counterprotests, particularly from the residents who were, I think, quite clearly getting to the end of their rope?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Initially, we didn't have concerns with counterprotests. People who live in Ottawa are very used to demonstrations and protests.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Not like this one, though.

[Chief Steve Bell]

No, absolutely, not like this one.

What we were concerned about, as it progressed, was the intervention of citizens with members of the occupation as they moved around the city, and that was very concerning to us.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, we have enough time to do one more round. If we're agreeable, we'll start that with Mr. Motz. To be clear, we'll go to Mr. Motz and Mr. Virani for four minutes each, and then to Madame Normandin, Mr. Green, Senator Cordy and Senator Patterson, who will each have three minutes.

We'll start with Mr. Motz for four minutes.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Chief, I want to take you back to a comment you made about the exclusion zone. You said that the Emergencies Act was the only tool you had to invoke that, yet a mere three hours after the Emergencies Act was rescinded by the government, the Ottawa Police Service found other authorizations to bar people from the downtown area. You put out a bulletin saying that for public safety interests, an area that used to be known as the secure area downtown was no longer accessible to the public, so I wanted to remind you that there are other authorities that you could have used for exclusion zones.

You indicated, sir, that you had an OPS plan in place and that you required—and I think Deputy Ferguson said the same thing—manpower. You required resources.

When did the Ottawa Police Service ask for those resources? I know that Chief Sloly probably asked for them early on, but you would know that. Whom did you ask?

[Chief Steve Bell]

To start with the first part, I don't believe I ever stated that it was the only tool. I think what I said was that it created a very stable legal framework for us to be able to enact or to execute—

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Right. I remember what you said. What I'm saying is that at one point, with another issue, you invoked another authority to keep people out of the downtown core a mere three hours afterwards. That's irrevocable.

How many officers did you ask for, when did you ask for them and whom did you ask for them?

[Chief Steve Bell]

I'm going to turn that over to Deputy Chief Ferguson.

[D/Chief Patricia Ferguson]

Thank you.

For the first weekend, we had a number of public order units that were here in town assisting us. Then, beyond that, on an ongoing basis, there was a very public request for 1,800 officers, which I think you saw our chief declare at the police services board meeting.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Right. The impression that's left is that the invocation of the Emergencies Act was necessary to swear in these individuals. We all know that, in circumstances like the ones you were facing as a police service, you could have had 500 officers in a room and you could have sworn them in all at once, so the Emergencies Act was not necessary. Other agencies have done that in the past.

Chief, I wanted to ask you this. We were led to believe that in the early stages especially, and during a majority of the blockade or protest downtown, there was less crime in the affected, blockaded area than you're normally used to—in fact, significantly less crime.

Is there any truth to that, yes or no?

[Chief Steve Bell]

I would like to go back to the comment that was made around the swearing in of the—

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

I asked the question. Was there more or less crime in the downtown core in the area where the blockade was?