Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for being here with us today. We appreciate it; we were looking forward to hearing their testimony.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Ottawa Police Service for its excellent work. I also want to thank the officers, who managed to implement a large-scale operation to remove the protesters who had set up on Parliament Hill for several weeks.
That said, the first question that comes to my mind is this: why did this operation not take place earlier? Why did it take so much time to implement it?
I can't help but draw a parallel with what happened in Quebec City. As soon as they got the information that people were heading to the National Assembly in Quebec City, the mayor of the city and the premier of the province issued warnings. They said that they would not tolerate any excesses. Police blocked access to the Parliament. There were police officers from the Sûreté du Québec, or SQ, and from the city's police force just about everywhere near the National Assembly and in the surrounding streets. There were even tow trucks on site.
That said, I wonder about the Ottawa Police Service's preparation.
At what point, Mr. Bell, did you know that people were heading to Parliament Hill?
How did you prepare? How did you work with other police services, with levels of government and with the City of Ottawa?
How did you prepare for this convoy that was clearly headed for downtown Ottawa?