Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 17th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Good morning. I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 22 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. The committee is meeting today to continue its work on the operational security of the parliamentary precinct along Wellington and Sparks Street.

I would like to welcome the following witnesses in the first half of the meeting: Steve Bell, interim chief of the Ottawa Police Service; Michael Duheme, deputy commissioner, Royal Canadian Mounted Police; and Luc Beaudoin, director, Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau.

We are not here to duplicate the work of other committees, so I will remind you of the wording of the motion we agreed to:

That pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(a)(i) and (ii), the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs undertake a study on expanding the federal jurisdiction for the operational security of the Parliamentary Precinct to include sections of Wellington St. and Sparks St.; that the study consist of no less than five meetings; and that the committee report its findings with recommendations back to the House of Commons.

I will also take a moment to remind all colleagues that we will try to adhere to the amount of time we have for questions, comments and responses. Whenever the response is longer, I will provide that time back to our colleagues to ensure the time is not taken away from you. This is so we can be mindful of the work the interpreters do. If we can refrain from interrupting each other, it would be greatly appreciated.

I will also remind all members that we would appreciate all comments be made through the chair. To our guests, as well, we always address comments through the chair.

We will now start by welcoming Chief Bell for opening comments.

I'll remind you that your comments should be no more than five minutes, so if you can keep them to less than five minutes, it would be greatly appreciated.

Please go ahead, Chief Bell.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the chair and committee members for having us here today.

The Ottawa Police Service is the police of jurisdiction for the area we are discussing today. We understand how important this topic is for all Canadians. We all want to see a free, open and peaceful capital that the residents of our city, visitors and Canadians can fully appreciate and enjoy. This is crucial to our democracy.

No one wants to see another unlawful protest as we saw in February. We have worked closely with the our city partners and have already taken steps to ensure that the conditions that led to the unlawful protest do not reoccur. We have also taken an enhanced police posture towards demonstrations and other events in the downtown core. We're working closely with the City of Ottawa to identify exclusion zones where vehicle-based events or protests are not allowed. We saw that this approach was successful during the last demonstration.

The Ottawa Police Service has been policing Canada's capital since the 1800s. Policing is now more complicated than ever. We've adapted and we will continue to evolve as a police service, but as we consider changes moving forward, there are three areas I'd like to briefly discuss: jurisdictional responsibilities, infrastructure and resources.

As the police of jurisdiction in the nation's capital, a city that includes several law enforcement agencies, we have always had a strong sense of co-operation and collaboration. We're used to dealing with questions of jurisdiction. For example, security services on Parliament Hill and with the parliamentary precinct in Ottawa are handled by the Parliamentary Protective Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The RCMP is also responsible for protecting certain properties in Ottawa, such as foreign embassies and consulates, and for the security of designated Canadians like the Prime Minister and the Governor General.

Any changes to law enforcement responsibilities within the jurisdiction of Ottawa will need to be clearly laid out. Who will do what and where? What are the exact boundaries? What happens when an incident or event crosses over these boundaries?

If we're going to effectively respond to complex and shifting events, jurisdictional boundaries, responsibilities and collaborative strategies will have to be clearly spelled out. Statutory and regulatory jurisdictions will need to be determined so that whoever has jurisdiction has the necessary authorities and does not need to depend on ad hoc emergency legislation.

The second issue we need to consider is infrastructure. Millions of tourists visit the nation's capital each year. We want to be an accessible and welcoming city. Ottawa should be a modern, livable city where residents can move about unobstructed, but in times of emergency and threat, we need to have the infrastructure in place that could protect key locations and personnel. Without infrastructure that can quickly be adapted for security, we are forced to rely on ad hoc measures like using heavy trucks and buses to block roads, which is a less effective and more disruptive method. We need to have infrastructure that we can put in place quickly and effectively, maintain for the duration of the threat and then reduce where appropriate.

The third issue to talk about is resources. Although we can't predict the exact nature of the next emergency or security threat, we must be prepared to maintain public security and protect the residents of Ottawa in any event. This requires adequate resources, including staffing for response, threat assessments and inter-agency liaison. Where and how these resources will be secured needs to be determined.

This concludes my prepared comments. This is a very important discussion for the City of Ottawa and all Canadians.

I look forward to answering your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you very much, Chief Bell, for those concise comments.

I will now it turn over to the Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP for up to five minutes.

[Deputy Commissioner Michael Duheme, Deputy Commissioner, Federal Policing, Royal Canadian Mounted Police]

Good morning, Madam Chair, vice-chairs and committee members.

I'm Mike Duheme from the RCMP, deputy commissioner of federal policing. I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to be here today.

We support the committee's study on the feasibility of expanding the parliamentary precinct to include sections of Wellington and Sparks streets. As I understand it, the United States conducted a similar review to improve the provision of security services provided at Capitol Hill, following the events of January 2021. We look forward to any of the committee's findings and recommendations that can better address the safety and security of the precinct and the grounds of Parliament Hill.

Like my colleague Steve, I would like to focus my discussion on three themes: jurisdiction, RCMP and the freedom convoy, and our role in PPS.

To begin, Ottawa Police Service, PPS and the RCMP have different jurisdictional responsibilities. OPS remains the POJ, police of jurisdiction, within Ottawa. This means that if there is a violation of the Criminal Code, even on the grounds of Parliament Hill or within the precinct, it is usually the OPS who will investigate, make arrests and lay appropriate charges under the Criminal Code or provincial or municipal laws.

The Parliamentary Protective Service mandate is ensuring physical security throughout the grounds of Parliament Hill and the buildings designated by the Speaker of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Commons that form the parliamentary precinct.

RCMP has both a protective policing and investigative mandate in the national capital region to safeguard principal government officials and to investigate federal policing threats related to national security, transnational serious and organized crime, and cybercrime.

Next, as we all witnessed, police services across the country responded to unprecedented and highly disruptive demonstrations and occupations. Throughout the convoy, the RCMP was engaged with its partners through its national capital region command centre.

The command centre promotes real-time, effective, operational coordination among law enforcement and security partners during major events and emergencies in the national capital region. The centre, which brought together representatives from the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Parliamentary Protective Service, the Ottawa Police Service and other groups, such as municipal partners and first responders, therefore enabled commanders directing responses to make timely and informed decisions when working with various policing partners.

In addition, the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ottawa Police Service established an integrated command centre to improve collaboration and coordination of investigative activities to stop the disruption in the nation's capital. The goal was to end the blockade quickly and safely. I believe we all effectively achieved that goal, and I would like to thank all the police officers and law enforcement agencies who participated in this operation.

Finally, I would like to talk about our role within the Parliamentary Protective Service. The operational head of the PPS is a member of the RCMP. However, the Parliamentary Protective Service is a separate entity from other law enforcement partners and takes its direction from the House of Commons and the Senate.

It needs to be clearly recognized that PPS is separate and independent from the RCMP. We have distinct mandates and jurisdictional responsibilities, yet we are always willing to assist our partners as required. All RCMP frontline resources have been demobilized from the PPS, leaving the current director of the PPS as the only remaining RCMP member present at the Parliamentary Protective Service.

In closing, we look forward to the committee's findings and recommendations. I would like to thank you for the time and the opportunity to speak about this important topic.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you so much for those concise comments.

Mr. Beaudoin, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Luc Beaudoin, Director, Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau]

Madam Chair and members of the committee, I want to begin by thanking you for seeking the views of the Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau, the SPVG, as part of the review on this issue.

The testimony of the SPVG will not directly address the expansion of the Parliamentary Precinct. Rather, our reflection will focus on the impact that major events occurring on Parliament Hill have on our policing, our municipality and our community.

I will offer my testimony not only in light of the recent truck convoy protests, but also from previous experiences.

At the moment, the City of Gatineau is the fourth-largest city in Quebec; it has a population of over 290,000. Together with Ottawa, we are the fourth most populous urban area in Canada, after Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

The Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau covers an area of over 342 square kilometres.

In accordance with the Quebec Police Act, the SPVG provides level 3 services. Our police service has over 700 employees, including 390 authorized police officers and approximately 85 temporary police officers. This makes it the fifth-largest municipal police force in Quebec.

As of October 30, 2019, the National Assembly of Quebec has recognized the special situation of the Outaouais, particularly because of its geographic proximity to Ottawa and Ontario. Five bridges separate our two cities: the Cartier-Macdonald Bridge, the Portage Bridge, the Alexandra Bridge, the Chaudière Bridge and the Champlain Bridge. While some of these bridges fall under the jurisdiction of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, another is under the responsibility of the Sûreté du Québec.

The Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau is therefore unique among Quebec's municipal police organizations because of its proximity to an interprovincial border and, consequently, its close partnership with the Ottawa Police Service, which is subject to the Ontario Police Services Act.

So, although our two organizations are governed by different legislation, we provide excellent co-operation at all levels and mutual support to prevent and solve crimes, whether local, regional or interprovincial, as well as supervision for special events, to name but a few examples.

While police service jurisdictions are clearly defined and governed by legislation that imposes jurisdictional boundaries, crime has no borders, and the issues that we face on both sides of the Ottawa River have a direct impact on our day-to-day work.

It is clear that the current era is undergoing massive social change, which greatly affects police work. It is therefore vital that we take a holistic, in-depth look at these types of events in order to meet the public's expectations and help improve public safety, which is essential to maintaining public trust.

Legal obligations frame police work in Quebec, such as section 48 of the Quebec Police Act, which states that their mission is “to maintain peace, order and public security, to prevent and repress crime [...] according to their respective jurisdiction.” To do so, “they ensure the safety of persons and property, safeguard rights and freedoms, respect victims [...] and co-operate with the community.”

Section 69 of the Police Act reads: “A municipal police force shall have jurisdiction [...] in the territory of the municipality to which it is attached”.

Under our mission, we have the duty to supervise protests in order to ensure the safety of participants, who are exercising a fundamental and recognized right, as well as the safety of the public. It is a fine line for police services to ensure the right to protest while ensuring public safety. This supervision must be conducted while maintaining traffic flow in accordance with municipal bylaws and provincial laws.

This border environment creates a legislative complexity that public safety services must juggle. This requires maintaining a dialogue with the protesters as well as with the various partners and stakeholders involved in such events, be they public, private or community organizations. An event in or around the Parliamentary Precinct may require the involvement of six services: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Ottawa Police Service, the Sûreté du Québec, the Parliamentary Protective Service and the Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau.

The truckers' protest, which became an illegal occupation, required several operational meetings, as well as meetings with all the police services involved in order to establish an action plan. From a communications standpoint, many hours were also invested in advance to ensure team coordination and consistency in our messaging.

In conclusion, whether or not the federal jurisdiction over the operational security of the Parliamentary Precinct is extended, managing events in the vicinity of this area has undeniable collateral impacts on the entire City of Gatineau. As a police service, we are responsible for implementing the necessary operational structure to manage the numerous issues related to a large-scale protest, including traffic, gatherings, crowd flow, communications, and crime and violence prevention, while maintaining our residents' sense of security.

In order to fulfil our mandate, we must be involved from the first stages of planning, at both the strategic and operational levels. Depending on the scope of the situation and the activities planned, we will be able to adjust our response and be ready to face any eventuality. The current social climate, the increasingly rapid mobilization in various social movements and the polarization of discourse will undoubtedly lead the national capital region to experience other major disruptions of this type. These types of events require transparency and accountability to the public in order to maintain public confidence in police services.

The Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau pledges its full and complete co-operation and hopes to maintain the support of political authorities in carrying out its mission.

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you very much.

I regret not welcoming you at the beginning, Chief Superintendent Carson Pardy from the Ontario Provincial Police.

Welcome to PROC.

You have five minutes.

[Chief Superintendent Carson Pardy, Regional Commander, North East Region, Ontario Provincial Police]

Thank you and good morning, Madam Chair, vice-chairs and committee members.

I'm here today representing the Ontario Provincial Police and our commissioner, Mr. Thomas Carrique.

Under the Ontario Police Services Act, the OPP has a unique dual mandate to provide frontline policing services to 328 municipalities across the province, as well as to provide assistance and/or specialized support to municipal services upon their request.

As it relates specifically to the freedom convoy and the associated illegal blockades in the city of Ottawa, the OPP's intelligence bureau commenced reporting to our policing partners on January 13, 2022. As of January 22, daily intelligence reports focused on the convoy headed to Ottawa and the anticipated protest movements across the province. Intelligence reporting was shared with more than 35 Canadian police, law enforcement and security agencies. As the convoy crossed over the Manitoba-Ontario border and travelled across the province until it arrived in Ottawa on January 28, OPP officers professionally fulfilled their duties without incident.

In support of the Ottawa Police Service, throughout the occupation an increasing number of OPP officers and specialized resources from various services became engaged, ultimately contributing to an integrated plan and the establishment of a unified command.

Simultaneously, our members responded to many convoys and demonstrations that consistently and repeatedly emerged in communities across Ontario, including but not limited to the critical blockade of the Ambassador Bridge, the blockade of Highway 402, multiple attempts to block Canada-U.S. border crossings, and demonstrations that posed risks to the area of the Ontario legislature.

In addition, from day one when the convoy entered Ontario, we were responsive to requests for assistance from other municipal police services. This was a provincial and national emergency that garnered international attention. In response, the OPP and more than 20 other police services from across the country worked collaboratively to address public order emergencies that were unmatched in recent history.

Protests and demonstrations are often complex in nature. The role of the police remains that of protecting the public, upholding the law and keeping the peace.

The province's critical infrastructure and highways regulation under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act and the federal Emergencies Act were effective supplementary tools needed to help protect critical infrastructure and ensure the continuous and safe delivery of essential goods and services, while at the same time maintaining or—in the case of Ottawa—restoring peace, order and public security.

As the committee is well aware, in addition to the critical events experienced in Ontario, the illegal occupation in Ottawa was accompanied by numerous other high-risk freedom convoy related protests and blockades across Canada. The OPP worked collaboratively with the Ottawa Police Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other policing partners to develop a sustainable and integrated operational plan that was informed by best practices from other high-risk critical events and available police resources, along with concurrent and emerging operational requirements, in a number of police jurisdictions.

Sufficiently trained public order officers were amassed from throughout Canada and deployed in an integrated, strategic and measured manner, which resulted in the collapse of the occupation. The situation and the associated events simultaneously taking place across Canada required unprecedented national collaboration to prevent injury, preserve life and protect critical infrastructure.

I must note, however, that the Ontario Provincial Police's role here in Ottawa is not that of the police of jurisdiction, nor do we have the security responsibility on Parliament Hill. In the matter of the freedom convoy, we provided assistance and specialized support to our partners, the Ottawa Police Service.

I look forward to answering any questions you may have of the Ontario Provincial Police. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you for those concise comments.

We will now enter into the first round of questions. It's a six-minute round, with Mr. Scheer, Mr. Gerretsen, Madame Gaudreau and Ms. Blaney. If we're mindful of time, we'll try to squeeze in a second half-round of questions. Otherwise, time is very limited, so I'll leave it to members.

Mr. Scheer, the floor is yours.

[Andrew Scheer, Regina—Qu'Appelle, CPC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

There were certainly a lot of allegations made at the time of the protests that have since been debunked. A lot of inflammatory language used by certain politicians and the corporate media to try to characterize these protests into something that they weren't, and a lot of those types of allegations have also been debunked.

Many politicians and many media observers used the term “occupation”, in that Parliament Hill was occupied or that the protesters were occupying the precinct or parts of Ottawa.

I just wanted to clarify that, because that's a particularly precise word with a lot of meaning behind it.

Monsieur Duheme, are you aware of any parliamentary buildings that were occupied by protesters?

[D/Commr Michael Duheme]

Madam Chair, no, I'm not aware. We had good communication with the director of PPS, who in turn was communicating with the Sergeant-at-Arms, and I know there were communiqués that went out throughout members of Parliament to advise them, but I'm not aware of any Parliament buildings or those in the parliamentary precinct that were occupied.

[Andrew Scheer]

To Chief Bell, are you aware of any buildings near the parliamentary precinct that were occupied, where protesters entered buildings and occupied them?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Thank you, Madam Chair. Specifically entering buildings, no, that wasn't part of what we saw. What we did see was our streets occupied with trucks, vehicles, with people who were terrorizing our community. That's what we saw. That's the reality. I think it's important that we try not to minimize the impact on our community and on our city.

[Andrew Scheer]

It's also important to use precise language, because the parliamentary precinct is very specifically defined and the word “occupation” means something very specific.

I have one more question on this line, Mr. Duheme. Were you aware or did anybody in the Parliamentary Protective Service give you any indication that protesters were preventing access to any of the parliamentary buildings during the protest?

[D/Commr Michael Duheme]

I'm not aware, Madam Chair. The director did not brief me of any such circumstances.

[Andrew Scheer]

No buildings were occupied and nobody was prevented from entering any buildings on Parliament Hill. Thank you for that.

Chief Bell, there were reports.... A number of security concerns that were raised during the protests arose from the number of trucks that were allowed to park outside this building on Wellington Street in front of West Block. Did the Ottawa Police Service receive any requests from the Sergeant-at-Arms or the Parliamentary Protective Service before the convoy arrived to prevent parking on Wellington Street? Was there ever a specific request from the PPS to prevent trucks from parking right on Wellington Street?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Madam Chair, what I can say is that we continually worked with all of our partners, including PPS, to look at how we planned and managed the lead-up to the convoy arriving. Wellington Street as it exists now, currently, is the Ottawa Police Service's jurisdiction. Although we would not receive any direct request for parking or any sort of exemptions to parking rules, I wouldn't expect to see that, because it was a street that was maintained under our responsibility and I think something we're here specifically to speak about today.

[Andrew Scheer]

Okay.

Many of the streets that were blocked during the protests were blocked by police vehicles. Is that true that many of the streets in downtown were blocked by the Ottawa police?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Madam Chair, our responsibility as demonstrations unfold is around public safety and public security. We will block streets off as we identify public safety or security reasons, so there were a number of streets that we did ultimately block off, and that was to not allow further vehicles to access or not allow any sort of public safety concerns to exist.

[Andrew Scheer]

The trucks themselves were parked on several streets, but not on others. Were there any negotiations between the organizers of the protest and the Ottawa police as to where the trucks would be allowed to park and requests made to keep certain streets open? Was there that type of conversation going back and forth?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Madam Chair, one of the things that we did very early on in the build-up to the convoy coming across the city and ultimately in our response to the occupation was that we took a look at several other protests that had occurred and findings and outcomes from those protests and demonstrations, particularly around the demobilization of them.

One of the things that we identified that's fundamentally important, and is a practice that the Ottawa Police Services and almost every other police service across Canada uses, was to make sure that we have representative individuals who have direct communication with organizers that we can identify—

[Andrew Scheer]

I'm sorry. I only have about 30 seconds left. I would like to get a yes or no answer.

Were there conversations, negotiations or discussions about where the protesters would be allowed to park their trucks? Please answer yes or no.

[Chief Steve Bell]

We identified people to work with protesters and demonstrators to identify areas where we would see them come in and, ultimately, see them exit the city.

[Andrew Scheer]

Is that a yes? Were there...?

[Chief Steve Bell]

Yes, there were definitely discussions about where they would go and, ultimately, how they would leave.