Declaration of Emergency Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2022

[Chief Steve Bell]

I don't have the actual statistics for you, but I can provide those for you.

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

But you know there was less crime.

[Chief Steve Bell]

No, I do not know there was less crime.

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

Okay, well, it was reported widely that there was a lot less crime in the downtown area.

Given your experience, Chief, you know that there are extremists who would attach themselves to a protest to leverage that protest for their own nefarious purpose. Is that correct?

[Chief Steve Bell]

That it can happen is correct, yes.

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

There is some evidence—in fact, there is significant evidence—to suggest that that's exactly what happened at Coutts—confirmed by the RCMP—and also potentially here in Ottawa. Is that correct?

[Chief Steve Bell]

I'm not familiar with the information around Coutts. I can tell you that there were fringe elements involved in the protests in Ottawa, but I can also tell you that there were a large number of people involved in occupying our streets, engaged daily in illegal activities.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Mr. Motz, your time is up.

We'll move to Mr. Virani.

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

Thank you.

With respect to Coutts, I just want to make it clear—and you may or may not be familiar with this, Mr. Bell—that at least four charges of conspiracy to commit murder were laid at Coutts. Are you aware of that?

[Chief Steve Bell]

No, I'm not aware of the charges that were laid there.

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

Okay.

I'm looking at something called an Ontario Provincial Police operational intelligence report, which was prepared on February 14 by the OPP. I think they consulted with you in preparing these types of reports and shared them with you. Is that fair?

[Chief Steve Bell]

I'm sorry, sir, but I missed the very beginning of the question.

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

There's something called an operational intelligence report, by the OPP, dated February 14, which was prepared in consultation with you. I presume they shared this information with you, because it references OPS information. Is that correct?

[Chief Steve Bell]

I'm not familiar immediately with the exact document you're speaking of.

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

Okay. I'm going to put to you a couple of things and you can tell me whether they sound correct from your observations as you observed them in your role with the OPS. It talks about some of the objectives of the various people who were on the ground blockading.

Their objectives were “an intent to pressure the Federal Government into repealing...restrictions and/or compelling Prime Minister TRUDEAU to resign”. On another point, on page 18 of this document, it says that they “appear to have a vested interest [in] accomplishing a change of government”. On page 22, it talks about a speaker from Quebec who used “Very powerful Anti-Government rhetoric, talking about over throwing the present Government and having a 'Party of Citizens' take over.”

The document goes on, and there are multiple references to “WE WILL BE THE NEW GOVERNMENT. We will just take the power and share it together.” At the very end of this document, it concludes that “[t]he first and foremost barrier preventing a resolution arises from the primary objectives of the...group”, which include the “dissolution of Prime Minister Justin TRUDEAU's government.”

Does that sound familiar to you, in terms of the observations you and your personnel observed on the ground as the OPS trying to deal with this blockade, that this overthrow rhetoric was being used by people who were involved in the blockade?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Again, what I'll say is that there were many different components to the occupation, many different people involved in it. Those were comments that could have been heard, but there was also commentary around mandate removals. There was commentary around the World Economic Forum. There were many different agendas that presented themselves there.

You captured some of the sentiment, but I wouldn't say that it was overriding or that there was one voice and that was what the voice was capturing.

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

Okay.

Mr. Naqvi talked to you about misleading calls, misleading the police with attempted obstruction of the 911 vehicle. Are you also aware that children were being used and actively deployed as a method of blocking police activity and impeding police arrests?

[Chief Steve Bell]

I am well aware that there were children in the vicinity, in the red zone actually. In terms of the actual activities you're talking about, we didn't have any evidence of those and there were no criminal charges laid around those.

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

Right. Criminal charges weren't laid because there were times when OPS officers went in to try to lay charges and they were actually swarmed or surrounded by blockaders. Is that correct?

[Chief Steve Bell]

That is correct, but it was never in relation to the safety of a child.

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

Okay.

You indicated in earlier testimony today that the mere threat that accounts would be frozen under the Emergencies Act actually prompted individuals to leave of their own volition. Is that right?

[Chief Steve Bell]

That is correct. That's what I understand.

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

That avoided the necessity of having a physical confrontation between your officers and the blockaders. Is that correct?

[Chief Steve Bell]

That was not on a large scale, but that was one of the impacts we did see.

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

Avoiding a confrontation means avoiding violence that might erupt from that confrontation. Is that fair?