Evidence of meeting #17 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 emergencies.
A video is available from Parliament.
7:05 p.m.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
I have 30 years of experience as a lawyer, and I know that only a judge can decide to quash an obstruction charge.
What I am saying is that a towing company can be charged with obstruction if they refuse to tow a vehicle.
7:05 p.m.
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
We wouldn't be able, under the Criminal Code, to lay a charge against a tow truck company. It would have to be against an individual person, driver or owner. We didn't get to the point where we ever looked at initiating criminal investigations and ultimately doing the investigation, laying a charge and then having it go through a court—
7:10 p.m.
Jane Cordy Senator, Nova Scotia, PSG
Thank you very much, Chair, and welcome, Chief and Deputy Chief.
It's been argued that there were difficulties in relationships between the Ottawa police and.... Do you agree with this assessment, and if so, did these difficulties slow down the implementation of solutions to deal with the protest?
7:10 p.m.
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
I think it's really important to identify that this was a stressful time. It was a stressful time for everyone in our city and a stressful time for our organizations.
I do believe that we worked with our partners in a good and increasingly progressive way to get to the ultimate outcome that we had. At the end of the day, we had a very strong integrated planning team and a very strong unified command system that actually allowed us to use resources from across the country to execute the plan.
7:10 p.m.
Senator, Nova Scotia, PSG
Was leadership acting in unity? We certainly heard about incidents of the chief and the police board not working together. Were there problems in that area?
7:10 p.m.
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
Again, I would go back and say that this was an extremely stressful time for everyone involved. There were always some challenges for people in trying to work together to move ahead. I don't believe that ultimately it impacted our progress, but it was a stressful and difficult time.
7:10 p.m.
Senator, Nova Scotia, PSG
Other people have spoken about the tools that were available, and you said—or I believe you said, and certainly many people have said—that the tools were in place, but did organizational and planning difficulties make it more challenging to use the tools that were available?
7:10 p.m.
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
No, I actually think the tools that were there were heavily leveraged in the plan that we ultimately executed. I think the tools provided by the province and by the federal government in both their emergency acts were utilized for us to successfully execute the plan.
7:10 p.m.
Senator, Nova Scotia, PSG
We also heard yesterday that convoy leaders were receiving information about police tactics and the plans that the police departments had, including the Ottawa police, the provincial police and even the RCMP. We heard that information was being given to the convoy leaders about what was planned. Did you believe this was happening or did you know of situations where it was happening?
7:10 p.m.
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
What I can tell you is that right from the very early days of the convoy, it was something that we were concerned with. At every turn, as we received information to initiate an investigation, we did.
We have engaged in discipline for some of our members as a result of conduct during this period. It was not directly as attributed to the planning that we heard about, but more around donating money to the cause. I can tell you that this information through Mr. Wilson was new to us yesterday. As I indicated earlier, as of last night I have initiated an investigation to follow up on those comments.
7:10 p.m.
Senator, Nova Scotia, PSG
Thank you.
That was going to be my next question. I was going to ask whether you were going to be doing an internal investigation, so I'm pleased that it's happening.
Getting back to the money, you said that accounts were frozen, but we did hear yesterday that envelopes of money were in fact being passed out to people, and they were significant amounts of money—not $25 or $50, but significant amounts of money. This was money that came from programs like Adopt-a-Trucker, which I only heard about yesterday.
Was this accurate? Did you know about the money being passed out? I think you referenced it earlier in an answer. Was there any attempt to stop the flow of this money?
7:10 p.m.
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
I'm unfamiliar with the information around envelopes being handed around. One of the things that concerned us in the early days and was identified through intelligence was the crowdsource funding, initially through GoFundMe. We were engaged in conversations to have GoFundMe stop the flow of that money. Then with GiveSendGo, we actually, as a lead agency with the Ministry of the Attorney General, initiated a restraint order against that.
At every opportunity to investigate the flow of money, we engaged in that.
7:15 p.m.
Senator, Nova Scotia, PSG
Thank you very much. I know my time is up, so thank you.
7:15 p.m.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Thank you very much.
Senator Patterson, you have five minutes.
November 3rd, 2022 / 7:15 p.m.
Dennis Glen Patterson Senator, Nunavut, CSG
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the witnesses.
Chief Bell, you've talked about the large problem of the trucks being downtown and the difficulties of moving them out, but I would like to look at this from a preventative aspect and ask you this. You knew, and I think the whole country knew, that the trucks were rolling across the country and heading to Ottawa. Does the Ottawa Police Service not have access to large concrete barriers that can be pinned to the roads?
7:15 p.m.
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
Yes—well, the city does, and we could access those, yes.
7:15 p.m.
Senator, Nunavut, CSG
Those have been used before to block streets in certain situations.
7:15 p.m.
Senator, Nunavut, CSG
I guess my question is, why weren't those put in place in locations like Wellington Street to stop those big trucks from coming into the parliamentary precinct?
7:15 p.m.
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
What I can say is that now, through the experience that we had at the end of January and the beginning of February, we've taken a very different stance on how we allow vehicular-based demonstrations, protester events into the downtown core. We just do not allow them.
I can tell you that, up until this occurrence in our city—and it was the first across the country—we had never, as a policing organization, not allowed people to come into a downtown core area in vehicles. We had facilitated several vehicle-based protests in the past. This was the first experience of this kind for any police agency across the country. I would say it has dramatically changed how policing agencies look at and manage vehicle-based protests.
7:15 p.m.
Senator, Nunavut, CSG
Thank you.
We heard witnesses from the City of Ottawa in our panel a week ago. I asked the same question, and the senior city official said that as far as that request or that idea of deploying concrete barriers was concerned, it was the Ottawa Police Service that rejected using the barriers on the grounds that they would impede traffic.
Do you recall that request and the decision that was made by the Ottawa Police Service not to go along with that idea?