Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 2nd, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

I call the meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 24 of the 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 streets.

For the first half of the meeting, I would like to welcome the following witnesses. We have the Honourable Vernon Darryl White, senator, as well as former chief of police, Ottawa Police Service, Peter Sloly.

Welcome to committee. We will provide you each up to five minutes for your opening comments.

I will turn the floor over to you, Mr. Sloly.

[Chief Peter Sloly, Former Chief of Police, Ottawa Service Police, As an Individual]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Good morning, everyone.

I appreciate the invitation from the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs to participate in this important study because of my continuing commitment to this city, as well as my mission to help build a more safe, just and inclusive society. In addition to my former role as the chief of the Ottawa Police Service, I bring to this committee over three decades of private and public sector experience in the areas of security, policing and justice, where I played lead roles in the planning and implementation of a variety of multijurisdictional and multi-agency operations. These include two tours of duty in the United Nations peacekeeping missions in Kosovo.

I have previously participated in the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security regarding systemic racism in policing. I was a participant in the Prime Minister's listening circle regarding police reform, and I was the co-chair for Public Safety Canada's national expert committee on countering radicalization to violence.

The events relating to the “freedom convoy” represent a paradigm shift in the way that protests are organized, funded, executed and responded to in Canada. The presentations by police and national security leaders that have been made at this and other standing committees studying the aspects of the “freedom convoy” events consistently indicate that this was an unprecedented national security crisis for which our institutions were not fully prepared. Despite this, Canada's national security agencies, police services, public institutions, elected officials, civic leaders and regular Canadians worked together to successfully end this highly volatile national security crisis without any loss of life or serious injuries.

Unfortunately, this crisis also exposed long-standing structural issues that now need to be formally assessed and effectively addressed to improve public safety for all Canadians. These structural issues need to repair, rebuild, rethink and indeed reimagine aspects of how we manage these issues, the potential expansion of the parliamentary precinct boundaries being just one such example, which I turn to now.

The parliamentary precinct covers roughly two square kilometres and represents the most visible, accessible and politically critical public space in the country. The parliamentary precinct exists in the wider geographical, institutional and legislative context of the national capital region, which includes a significant amount of critical infrastructure across rural, suburban and urban communities in two provinces.

The parliamentary precinct is Canada's most highly securitized area, with six different police agencies involved in serving and protecting the elected officials, public officials, residents, businesses and visitors using the space daily. The six agencies are the Parliamentary Protective Service, the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Sûreté du Québec, the Gatineau police and the Ottawa Police Service, which is designated by law as the police of jurisdiction in the city of Ottawa. These six NCR police agencies work primarily through two formal bodies—Intersect and the national capital region command centre. These bodies enable joint intelligence sharing, joint training exercises, joint event planning, integrated incident command operations and after-action reviews among its activities.

With this larger context in mind, I draw the committee's attention to the following areas that, in my view, need to be carefully considered. First is crime prevention through environmental design. Consider changes to the parliamentary precinct's physical environment, including the boundaries, to improve security. These might include making boundary changes, closing roads to create a pedestrian mall and installing bollards and other barriers to limit vehicular access.

Second is budget and resources. Consider increasing resources to Intersect and the national capital region command centre to enable the six NCR police agencies to continually improve their capacity to counter the ever-evolving threat environment, including both physical and cyber-related security threats.

Third and last is the issue of police of jurisdiction. Consider potential changes to the jurisdictional and legislated mandates of the six NCR police agencies while keeping in mind that such changes will be very difficult to achieve and will not alleviate all of the core issues of multi-agency, multijurisdiction operations.

I encourage the committee in its important work, which will hopefully lead to other solutions needed to prevent and mitigate enabling threat factors that underpinned the national security crisis we experienced earlier this year. These factors include social media disinformation campaigns, societal polarization, ideological extremism and reduced public trust in our democratic institutions.

I end my remarks by recognizing everyone who was impacted by this national crisis, especially Ottawa residents and business owners. I thank the civilian and sworn members of the Ottawa Police Service and those of our policing partners who were professional, ethical and compassionate in their efforts to resolve the local events and the national crisis.

I also thank my wife, children, family, friends, former colleagues and community leaders, as well as the many Ottawans and Canadians who supported me during my tenure as chief of police of the Ottawa Police Service.

I welcome any questions from committee members.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you so much for those opening comments.

Senator White, I want to start by apologizing. I should have come to you first for opening comments. The floor is now yours.

[Vernon White, Senator, Ontario, CSG]

That's okay. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the committee for inviting me here today.

By way of introduction, I'm currently a senator representing the province of Ontario. I've previously worked as a police chief of the Ottawa Police Service and the Durham Regional Police Service and served with the RCMP for almost 25 years, leaving as an assistant commissioner. Of note, I have been the chair of the Senate Speaker's advisory committee on security since 2015.

Many people will speak to the importance of relationships between the various law enforcement and security jurisdictions, and obviously they are extremely important. In fact, it might be argued that with the national capital region sitting on the border of two provinces, as well as being the seat of the federal government, relationships and understanding jurisdictions are key to maintaining a law enforcement model for those who work, live and, in the case of some, play here. I've seen that others have spoken specifically to the challenges and, I would argue, the opportunities as well that come with that model and the structure that is currently in place in Ottawa.

I'll speak directly to one area of concern that I believe we should consider in determining any expansion of the parliamentary precinct. The area of concern that has been raised multiple times in other forums—and here I believe as well—relates directly to the concerns that exist where vehicle access is—or at least has been—permitted on Wellington Street and on the west side of Elgin Street, next to the War Memorial.

Since the growth of parliamentary precinct security following the shooting at the memorial and on the Hill in 2014, there was a concerted effort to increase the security of the precinct and of people who work in and visit the precinct. There were as well at that time discussions about the potential for a catastrophic event on Wellington Street and what a “post-blast” would look like should someone decide that was their goal.

In relation to the direct security of the Hill, there have been many changes, as we all see, and the parliamentary precinct security and the RCMP should be commended for their work over the past six years, but the concern of the actual security of Wellington Street has seen little or no change.

The stark reality is that a blast like that seen in Oklahoma City, where over 300 buildings were damaged or destroyed and 168 people were killed, could very well happen here if we maintain a lax sense of security on Wellington Street and continue to allow vehicle access directly in front of precinct buildings and, as important, the Langevin building.

Many will argue that this occurred in the U.S., and it did, but the planning that was being forwarded by groups such as the Toronto 18 in 2006 had very similar planning: using vehicles to move forward on a plot of bombing many places, including activity at the parliamentary precinct. As long as vehicles have direct access to this location, we are at risk of large vehicles being used to deliver explosives. As a result, we're at high risk of a catastrophic event occurring on Wellington Street.

When considering security, we should always look at the design basis threat. There have been many movements by the parliamentary precinct, obviously, to combat the design basis threat that we face; however, when we consider design basis threat, our goal is to either alleviate or eliminate and counter that threat. I would argue that the best effort to immediately lessen the threat of such an event on Wellington Street is to remove all vehicle access from Wellington Street and the section of Elgin that moves along the side of Langevin, allowing for a buffer zone to be pushed south at least to Sparks and maybe beyond. It would have an immediate impact and would reduce the gravity of that threat.

There are many other reasons to recommend an expansion of the parliamentary precinct, if for no other reason than to give control of the space we're discussing to those who have a direct responsibility for the safety and security of the precinct.

If you have any questions, I would look forward to them. I'm happy to respond.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you, Senator, for those opening comments.

We'll now proceed to six-minute rounds. We'll start with Mr. McCauley, who will be followed by Mr. Naqvi.

I will then give the floor to Ms. Gaudreau, who will be followed by Ms. Blaney.

Mr. McCauley, the floor is yours, through the chair.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thanks, Madam Chair.

To our witnesses, thanks for joining us today.

I appreciate and thank you for your many years of service, Mr. Sloly. I had a cousin who served in peacekeeping there as well. Perhaps you ran into him.

I have a question for Mr. Sloly, please.

What support did the police service request from the federal government during the federal convoy protests? I'm aware of the request for the 1,800, but what other services or resources were requested?

[Chief Peter Sloly]

Thank you very much, Mr. McCauley.

There were a number of wide-ranging conversations, at one point on a daily basis for almost a full week, if not more, with a wide variety of deputy ministers and, in some cases, ministers. We literally covered—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Could we have some specifics?

[Chief Peter Sloly]

Literally everything was on the table in those discussions. We talked about the need for significantly more staffing: police officers in particular, and officers with particular skills.

We talked about efforts around mediation—interlocutors that could be brought in to provide some level of discussion to reduce the volatility of the situation. There were discussions around the financing of the event, tow trucks.... Literally everything that we could think of to bring a safe and effective close to the events here in Ottawa and across the country was discussed.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

What was provided of those items that you had asked for, the resources you asked for? What was actually provided to Ottawa police?

[Chief Peter Sloly]

Ultimately, the primary provision of resources were additional officers from provincial and federal agencies, who coordinated municipal contributions as well. That was the primary thing I was asking for, and it was the primary resource from the federal government. If you're referring specifically to the federal government, that was the primary resource that arrived during my tenure in office.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Through you, Madam Chair, did you or anyone in the OPS request the invocation of the Emergencies Act?

[Chief Peter Sloly]

I did not make that request. I'm not aware of anybody else in the Ottawa Police Service who did.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

You had gone public in requesting I think 1,800 officers or support people—I think it was on a Friday—and that was turned down. I think the quote was that the Prime Minister said you hadn't “exhausted” your tools and resources yet.

Had you exhausted your tools and resources when you made that request?

[Chief Peter Sloly]

Through you, Chair, I thank you for the question.

I'm not aware of any particular quotes attributed to any public official or elected official. I did ask for the 1,800 officers, including some civilians, as a request from my board. I presented that to my then board chair and the mayor, and they signed a document that was sent to provincial and federal governments requesting those resources specifically, along with other supports.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

Through the chair, what was the response from the provincial and federal levels?

[Chief Peter Sloly]

The immediate response verbally from both levels of government in the meetings that I was directly involved with was positive, and there were constructive efforts by both levels of government and other municipal agencies and their governments to provide those police officers and resources. It took time for them to arrive, so that was our biggest challenge.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Had the resources been provided as requested, would the Ottawa police have been able to clear the streets safely, as was done, but without the invocation of the act?

[Chief Peter Sloly]

Through you, Chair, I won't speak in conjectures, sir, but I think I understand the intent behind the question. The plan that was in place required at least 1,800 police officers. When those officers arrived, I had every confidence in the commanders and the tactical officers to put that plan to effect, for a safe and effective resolution. That is what happened.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

It was the resources provided that allowed Ottawa police to clear the blockades, to clear the protesters safely, securely, and not the act itself.

[Chief Peter Sloly]

The scale of those resources and the other supports that were requested by us as an integrated operating command system and other levels of government all contributed, and I said that in my opening statement, Chair, through you: This was literally a whole-of-Canada effort to resolve a national security crisis.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Through the chair, was there a request from the Ottawa Police Service or the PPS to provide technical capacity for non-invasive checking, non-invasive review, for explosives detection in the trucks that had been parked?

[Chief Peter Sloly]

Through you, Chair, I made no such request. I won't speak for the Parliamentary Protective Service. There are others here in the room, I believe, who could do that. I'm not aware of any member of my service who made that request.

We did have a large, integrated intelligence operation process that was under way before the events transpired here in Ottawa and across the country. I can't say for certain whether or not such a discussion took place.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Were you aware if the PPS had requested...?

[Chief Peter Sloly]

I cannot speak for the PPS, sir. Thank you.