Declaration of Emergency committee  On the funds that were frozen from the platforms, the RCMP does not have an active investigation into that. On the referrals to the financial institutions, no charges have been laid.

Declaration of Emergency committee  To my knowledge, no.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Madam Chair, I'm unaware of the initial discussions that took place from the onset with the OPS, the PLT and the convoy. I'm not aware of them. For the PPS, yes, if you look at the MOU that's in place that dates back from 2015, the RCMP does have operational oversight of PPS.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Madam Chair, to answer Senator Carignan's question, I don't have the exact number of police forces who provided assistance. However, I can provide some information about the law enforcement troops, the people who are in uniform from head to toe and wear a helmet. We needed 14 troops to help us manage the situation.

Declaration of Emergency committee  On February 12, it was being prepared, and it changed as the situation evolved. I can't say with certainty that the plan from February 12 was carried out because it changed continually based on the situation and the troops we had.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Madam Chair, we provided the necessary information to the banks for them to determine whether or not they had to freeze the funds. It was the banks that froze the funds. We gave them the necessary information, and the RCMP as an organization had prepared a document template to complete that we sent to the financial institutions.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I see no problem with that. It's a blank document that's not protected.

Declaration of Emergency committee  As of February 12, we didn't have the Emergencies Act in place.

Declaration of Emergency committee  We weren't even counting on that. We were planning accordingly with the existing authorities that we had.

Declaration of Emergency committee  They arrived in Ottawa, I believe, around January 28 or 29. As Commissioner Lucki alluded to earlier, every weekend.... The first weekend, there were in excess of 6,000 to 7,000 people on the Hill on the weekend in the downtown core. That weekend, when the ICC was struck up, we were working with....

Declaration of Emergency committee  You are correct, Madam Chair, there were counter-protests planned. I think the biggest challenge, as the commissioner alluded to earlier, was the size and funding and several people using this platform to manifest their dissatisfaction with COVID, the government, or any other element they could.

Declaration of Emergency committee  That's correct, Madam Chair.

Declaration of Emergency committee  They were addressed. On the ground, we had public liaison units who reached out to the organizers to explain things. If my memory serves me right, I think some of the counterprotests didn't go forward because we were able to convince people that it wasn't a good thing.

Declaration of Emergency committee  No.

Declaration of Emergency committee  In the integrated command centre that we had, there were multiple law enforcement agencies there. At gold level, as it were, there was me, Deputy Commissioner Harkins from the OPP, as well as the interim chief of police, Mr. Bell. Discussions were ongoing on the way forward. For every plan that was set forward, we were in agreement with the plan.