Declaration of Emergency Committee on June 7th, 2022

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Was the question looked into before the emergency was proclaimed?

[Rob Stewart]

We consulted all the provinces and a lot of municipalities.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Are there no tow trucks among the army's equipment?

[Rob Stewart]

It doesn't have enough tow trucks of the model that was needed.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Right.

And yet when it was done, when it was decided to clear Wellington Street, tow trucks for towing the trucks away were found.

Was that really the problem? Was the Emergencies Act proclaimed simply because no tow trucks could be found?

[Rob Stewart]

No, that wasn't the only reason. It is just an example.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

What situation could not have been resolved properly using the laws in force, including the Criminal Code and the Highway Traffic Act?

What situations could not have been resolved with the legislative tools that are in force?

[Rob Stewart]

There were several. It was obvious that the police needed more powers. I gave you an example. There is also access to additional resources. Here in Ottawa, we requested 100 police officers.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

What resources are you talking about?

What was missing, apart from tow trucks, to end the protest?

[Rob Stewart]

I could give you other examples.

In the situation in Ottawa in particular, but also elsewhere, we were having trouble deterring people who wanted to participate in the protests. The powers relating to economic measures were in addition to the powers of the police.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

That was preventive, to avoid...

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Thank you.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Stewart.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

I will now pass the floor over to you, Mr. Fortin, for my round of five minutes.

Mr. Stewart, I want to thank you for your candour and your answers today.

I want to get a sense in terms of timelines.

At what point in time did you first become aware there was the potential for an occupation in Ottawa and a national-stage convoy?

[Rob Stewart]

I think the origin of the situation was in late January. The “freedom convoy” was mobilizing and crossing the country. When it arrived in Ottawa shortly thereafter, we realized it might not be a one-day event. At the same time, borders began to be blocked out west.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Would that have been pursuant to the reports from the integrated terrorism assessment centre?

[Rob Stewart]

No, the integrated terrorism assessment centre was strictly looking at the potential for violent extremism.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

This would have been prior to their arrival, so we would imagine the convoy was coming toward Ottawa.

Was it the case that, from province to province, there were updated reports about the volume of traffic related to the convoy?

[Rob Stewart]

Yes.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

There would have been a rough estimate of participants at the outset of their arrival in the nation's capital.

[Rob Stewart]

It was very hard to know how many people would show up in Ottawa. There were a lot of potential participants. Not all of them showed up, but as you know, many did.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

In some of the reports that have been made public, there's correspondence between the National Capital Commission and the OPS, which talks about how they hoped this would be handled.

Are you privy to those communications? Have you come across them?

[Rob Stewart]

Do you mean between the NCC and OPS?

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

I mean the National Capital Commission. I believe these were related to where cars could park, the potential for Wellington Street, and so on and so forth.

[Rob Stewart]

There were, I think, discussions between the federal government and Ottawa police about what the Ottawa police could do and where people could—