Declaration of Emergency committee  I don't believe that this could have been completely prevented. It could have been displaced and dispersed. Very likely, there still would have been unlawful assembly. It just would not have been in the area it was contained to. It would have been in other areas of the city.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you for that question, Senator. We are not in command and control of all these events simultaneously as the Ontario Provincial Police. Each police service of jurisdiction is responsible for the development and execution of a plan within their respective jurisdiction. We were playing an informal leadership role because we were best positioned to coordinate the access to the necessary resources.

Declaration of Emergency committee  There were no OPP officers moved from Ottawa to Windsor. On February 11, we had approximately 150 OPP officers in Ottawa, give or take. By the 12th, there were well over 200. We maintained a presence of 200, building up to almost 1,000 over the course of the days. We did send OPP officers to Windsor to assist, but they were not taken from Ottawa; they were taken from other areas around the province.

Declaration of Emergency committee  It would have taken us longer to accomplish our mission.

Declaration of Emergency committee  We were actually partway through a request to the province for indemnification through a procurement process that we can rely upon in an emergency. That was in process. We were able to discontinue that pursuit and leverage the Emergencies Act, which was much more efficient for us.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Sorry, sir, can I get some clarification?

Declaration of Emergency committee  I'm not sure that I'm familiar specifically with what you're referring to—with a plan that was called off in the last second.

Declaration of Emergency committee  There had been a plan to take positive action to deploy public order and to clear a section. There had been some discussion of that. That was dealt with at an operational level and did not proceed. That was not necessarily something I was intimately involved in. At one point in time, on or around February 9—please don't hold me to the date because I'm going by memory—I did have a conversation with Chief Sloly over concerns that were brought forward by our team about moving forward with a public order plan that they didn't feel we were ready to move forward on.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I don't know that I can say that. I have no idea—

Declaration of Emergency committee  I did not inform the government on any aspects of invoking the act.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I'm sorry. I'm not clear on the actual question.

Declaration of Emergency committee  It would have been the exact same time. The operation did not move forward any sooner because of the Emergencies Act.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I can't say.

Declaration of Emergency committee  We would have moved forward with whatever indemnification we would have been able to get through the province. If that did not satisfy the tow providers, then we would have had to rely on our contingency of using police officers to operate tow trucks.

Declaration of Emergency committee  That is a situation of timing. The Emergencies Act was invoked prior to the operational plan being deployed.