Declaration of Emergency Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2022

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface (Senator, Ontario, ISG)]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 17 of the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency, created pursuant to the order of the House of March 2, 2022, and of the Senate on March 3, 2022.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House and Senate orders. Should any technical challenges arise, please advise me, as we may need to suspend for a few minutes to ensure that all members are able to participate fully. Witnesses should also be aware that translation is available through the globe icon at the bottom of their screen.

For our first panel this evening, by video conference, we have with us, from the Ottawa Police Service, Steve Bell, interim chief and Patricia Ferguson, acting deputy chief.

You have five minutes for opening remarks.

Chief Bell, the floor is yours.

[Chief Steve Bell, Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service]

Good evening. Thank you to the chair and committee members for inviting me here today.

My name is Steve Bell, and I'm the interim chief of the Ottawa Police Service. I'm here tonight with acting deputy chief Patricia Ferguson. I'm pleased to be here to answer any questions that you may have.

As has been said many times, the “freedom convoy” occupation was an unprecedented event in our city's history. Our service has learned many lessons from this experience, and we are fully committed to co-operating with committees and inquiries seeking to do the same.

I recently testified before the Public Order Emergency Commission. During my testimony, I outlined the four primary ways that the Ottawa Police Service leveraged powers made available to us through the Emergencies Act.

First, the most important power conferred under the act was authority to establish an exclusion zone. This enabled us to stop movement into the downtown core and create a more stabilized environment in advance of the operation that successfully and safely cleared the core and restored order in our city.

Another key element of the act was the power to freeze financial accounts. This assisted us and our policing partners, primarily the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in incentivizing convoy participants to leave voluntarily.

Third, the act removed the requirement for out-of-province officers and RCMP officers to be sworn in before engaging in policing duties within our jurisdiction. Given the large number of external police officers who assisted our operations, removing the process of swearing them in freed up precious time and resources.

Finally, the federal emergency declaration facilitated our access to tow trucks, since we were given authority to compel companies to provide tow trucks and drivers to assist in clearing the downtown core.

We're committed to continue to learn from the past in order to ensure public safety and community well-being moving forward. Since February, we have made significant changes to our policing and intelligence operations, and we've seen major successes, particularly in the “Rolling Thunder” event in April, as well as Canada Day, this past year.

I welcome another opportunity to assist in understanding both what occurred this past winter and how we can prevent such events in the future.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your questions.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Thank you very much, Chief Bell.

We'll now move to a round of questions, starting with Mr. Motz.

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

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you for being here, Chief and Deputy Chief.

I'm intrigued by your belief that the Emergencies Act dealt with four main or key areas. I'll get to those in a minute.

As I understand it, Chief, you had an operational plan in place.

[Chief Steve Bell]

That is correct.

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

That operational plan was in place in advance of the Emergencies Act's being invoked.

[Chief Steve Bell]

I'm going to need to turn that over to Deputy Ferguson—

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

It's just a yes or no. You had an operational plan—

[Chief Steve Bell]

We had an—

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

—that was in place prior to the invocation.

[Chief Steve Bell]

That's correct. We had an operational plan that we were continuing to build on—

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

Right.

[Chief Steve Bell]

—that was executed after the Emergencies Act.

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

Right.

As I take it, when you do an operational plan like that, it's a moving target. It's flexible. You have to adjust, which you've done.

Were you confident, prior to the invocation of the Emergencies Act, that the plan you had developed was going to be successful in moving the protesters?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Again, I'm going to turn that over to Deputy Chief Ferguson for a response.

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

Just a basic yes or no is fine.

[Deputy Chief Patricia Ferguson, Acting Deputy Chief, Ottawa Police Service]

Yes, we were confident.

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

Thank you.

You were confident that that operational plan would certainly work.

Do you believe, Chief Bell, that you had the support and confidence of the Government of Canada in that plan, and through the protests?

[Chief Steve Bell]

To execute the plan, I absolutely believe we had the support and confidence, at least in the branches of government we were dealing with. We were integrated with the RCMP and the OPP at that time, and I absolutely believe we had confidence.

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

Did you ever ask the federal government whether they were meeting or were going to meet with the protest leaders?

[Chief Steve Bell]

No, that wouldn't have been a question I asked directly.

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

In your experience, do you believe that it would be normal for individuals who had a disagreement like this over whatever it might be—in this case, a political disagreement or a mandate disagreement—and they were seeking to have a conversation with government...? Do you think it would be beneficial for that to have occurred between government officials and protest leaders?

[Chief Steve Bell]

I do know that we were actively engaged through our PLT groups in negotiating and having discussions. In terms of what asks were directly made or what responses were made from the federal government, I can't comment. I wasn't involved in—

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

No, I'm not asking that, Chief.

I'm asking if you believe that, in the normal course of human interaction, actually having interaction rather than calling people names and dividing Canadians on an issue, and just listening to them.... Would that have been beneficial in a circumstance like this?

[Chief Steve Bell]

As police leaders, we try to negotiate all the time. Whether it was beneficial or not, I can't speak on either party—