Declaration of Emergency Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2022

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

That's the key. Human nature is pretty basic, isn't it? People like to be heard, and I would certainly support that.

You didn't ask the Government of Canada to invoke the Emergencies Act, did you?

[Chief Steve Bell]

No, we never made a direct request for the invocation of the act.

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

Do you think that the Emergencies Act was necessary for you to clear out the protesters with your operational plan? You both indicated that you believed it was not.

Now, I want to push you on the exclusion zone. You said that the Emergencies Act helped you put the—

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

I would like to apologize to my colleague for interrupting his line of questioning, but I understand that members are requested in the House at this time.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Thank you very much.

We were trying to sort out what was going on. There is a requirement to be in the House.

Our apologies to the witnesses. We will suspend.

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

Hold on.

It's a quorum call. Under the rules of Parliament, a quorum call does not require committees to cease.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Would anyone else like to comment on that?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Could I request that you suspend for one minute, so we can sort this out?

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Okay, let's suspend for two minutes.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

We will resume.

We'll go back to Mr. Motz.

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

Thank you very much, Chair.

I apologize to the witnesses.

Chief Bell, you indicated tonight in your testimony that the Emergencies Act helped you to develop an exclusion zone, yet you've previously stated that other statutory or common-law authorities exist that might have authorized the creation of that exclusion zone without the invocation of the Emergencies Act.

Do you still believe that?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Yes. What I've stated in the past is that the Emergencies Act gave us a very stable legal framework in order to create an exclusionary zone that did not put all of the onus on an individualized basis on the officers on the front line to make a determination of whether someone could enter an area or not. The act was extremely beneficial—

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

That's fair enough, Chief.

I'm sorry, but we all know you can set up an exclusionary zone anywhere. We do it at crime scenes all the time. There was a fence around Parliament Hill. Without the authority of the Emergencies Act, you can set up an exclusionary zone. We all know you can.

Anyway, my time is up. Thank you for your testimony.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Your time is up. Thank you.

Mr. Naqvi, you have five minutes.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chief, and thank you, Deputy Chief, for being here today.

Let's start from what was happening in downtown Ottawa during the three-week period. Would you classify that you had a public order challenge on your hands during the three weeks of occupation that was taking place in downtown Ottawa?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Yes, for sure, and I think we openly stated on many occasions that the activities that were occurring in that area were unlawful and extremely difficult for us to manage as a police service.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

You said that the activities that were taking place were unlawful. Would you also characterize them as unpeaceful?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Yes, I would.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Can you share with us—and I know you've spoken about this before—the impact of that unlawful, unpeaceful occupation on the residents of the downtown core and the businesses that are located in the downtown core?

[Chief Steve Bell]

We've been actively engaged in working to rebuild public trust with our community members, and the thing that we hear repeatedly, time and time again, is that that period of time left them with a lack of a feeling of safety and security within their homes. It impacted them as business owners to be able to conduct business. It created fear during that time but also fear within that community, or at least with many residents of that community, that has lasted long beyond the end of February.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Would you agree—and I think you've said this before—that the impact was disproportionate to those who are vulnerable, marginalized, members of the indigenous community, the 2SLGBTQI+ community and racialized communities in the downtown core?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Yes, I would absolutely agree with that. That's one of the culturally richest areas of our community, and those were groups who were targeted, marginalized and most deeply affected by this.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Would you also agree that during that period there were clear signs of hate symbols like Nazi flags, Confederate flags, posters, etc. that could be extremely challenging and traumatizing for members of the community who lived in the downtown core?

[Chief Steve Bell]

What I would say is that there were examples of those. There were investigations conducted around those. They weren't everywhere all the time, but there were definitely those examples of hate-based symbols that were seen on a regular basis, reported to us and followed up by us.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Last week I asked the clerk of our city, Mr. Kanellakos, about the volume of 311 calls during that three-week period, and he said it almost doubled. Do you have any sense of the volume of 911 calls during the period of occupation?