Evidence of meeting #7 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 rcmp.
A video is available from Parliament.
Commr Brenda Lucki
I will pass that to my colleague.
What I can do is start off by saying we working in conjunction, obviously, with the Ottawa Police Service and OPP. We divided it into eight different zones with eight different types of groups.
Maybe Deputy Commissioner Duheme can give a bit more description?
D/Commr Michael Duheme
Thank you, Commissioner.
Madam Chair, to the best of my recollection, as the commissioner mentioned, there were seven or eight specific zones that we were looking at. There was one off of Waller and Nicholas. There was also one at Sussex and Rideau. Obviously the most popular one was in front of Parliament Hill. There was one further down on Bronson. There was one on the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, I believe. There were another one or two south of that.
The plan was that, when we did it, we would go from one site to another. By the time we cleared the third site, all of the other remaining sites were gone.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
From the perspective of members of the public who live here in the city of Ottawa, it was substantially more than just Wellington Street.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Thank you.
I'll go back to the integrated command and perhaps, deputy, this may be for you as well. Can you explain how the integrated command started, at what point it started, and then how it ended up at the end? I appreciate that the integrated command, at least in my understanding, would be the police service of jurisdiction, the Ottawa Police Service; the provincial jurisdiction, the OPP; and you, with other agencies assisting. In the joint command I would think it would be the three of you. Am I correct on that?
D/Commr Michael Duheme
That is correct. As I mentioned earlier, Madam Chair, the NCRCC was the first one that was set up, but when the protest started getting bigger and bigger we formed the integrated command centre. As you mentioned the OPP, OPS and we were in that, and that was really to plan the way forward for the intervention of the illegal protest.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Tell me, then, whether or not there was planning in place prior to the protest's taking place, as vehicles were coming across the country to take up their place here in Ottawa.
D/Commr Michael Duheme
From an RCMP perspective we were looking at the planning from our federal mandate for protectees and assistance for the Parliamentary Protective Service. The main lead on that, as the convoy was coming, was OPS. It was after that that we got integrated, when the resources were added to OPS.
Commr Brenda Lucki
I can add that we did follow the convoy across the country. They started at various areas. Many of them started within RCMP jurisdictions, so we were providing on-ground information to the Ontario police when they were crossing their border, and everything was funnelled in through a joint intelligence group.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Okay. Thank you. There would be a significant amount of work and documentation that might be somewhere that would outline at least where you started and what you anticipated as a police agency, who would deal with this ultimately, and then where you would find yourself at the end of that process. At least that's how it would be put together in my recollection. Am I correct on that?
Commr Brenda Lucki
Yes, all of the documentation was being funnelled through PCO. We were asked to provide all documents that we had in regard to the convoy protest.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
But it would also be in the hands of other police—at least at the provincial and the local level—so that when we see other police agencies coming before this committee we'll be able to at least get some information, I suspect, from them on how they viewed the convoy here.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Thank you.
Just very quickly I want to make a comparison between Windsor and what was occurring in Ottawa. I haven't been in the Windsor area in a while, but my recollection would be that it's a one- lane-in, one-lane-out type of road, so managing that would be a little bit easier than managing the size that you indicated here of the occupation. Am I correct on that?
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My questions are for Ms. Lucki.
I understand from your comments that you had difficulty finding tow trucks. Can you tell us how many companies you approached for towing services?
Commr Brenda Lucki
I will pass that to my colleague from contract policing, who was with the Alberta protest in Coutts.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
I'm talking particularly about the situation in Ottawa.
Commr Brenda Lucki
Yes, I would imagine there were several, but we did have several within our compound after the Emergencies Act was invoked. We were able to get—
