(Ottawa) Not only had Brenda Lucki lost faith in the leadership of former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly during the “freedom convoy” protests, but the RCMP commissioner was so worried she was ready to speak directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, we learned Thursday at the public inquiry.
Posted at 6:23 p.m.
M’s comments.me Lucki were released as notes taken from a February 15 meeting between her and several senior OPP officers.
It is not known at what time the meeting took place on this February 15, but it was on this day that Chief Sloly announced his resignation. The day before, the Liberal government had invoked the Emergency Measures Act, which granted temporary and exceptional powers aimed at restoring order.
PHOTO JUSTIN TANG, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly
Hundreds of protesters had been blocking the streets around Parliament Hill with their vehicles for three weeks, demanding an end to federal health measures – but sometimes also, more generally, the resignation of the Trudeau government.
The Emergencies Act can be used when an urgent, critical and temporary situation threatens the life, health or safety of Canadians, where provinces are believed to lack the capacity or authority to manage a situation and that the crisis cannot be managed effectively with the existing laws.
The State of Emergency Commission is tasked with determining whether the government was justified in invoking this never-before-used law. The commission, chaired by Judge Paul Rouleau, is holding public hearings in Ottawa until November 25.
Talk to the Prime Minister
On Thursday, the Rouleau commission got a glimpse of what Commissioner Lucki privately thought of the protests and the ability of the Ottawa police to handle the situation.
Notes taken at the February 15 meeting show that Mr.me Lucki wanted the OPP to take over from the Ottawa Police. According to documents, she said police needed a communications strategy and rules of engagement to enforce a law that banned people from joining blockades. “The reputation of the police department is at stake here,” she said, according to the notes.
The documents indicate that Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Commissioner Thomas Carrique, who testified before the commission on Thursday, told Mr.me Lucki, at that Feb. 15 meeting, that they both needed to talk to Mr. Sloly “about what’s not working and expectations,” as well as operational goals.
Mme Lucki replied that she “no longer trusted his leadership — or that it would.” She adds that if necessary, she “would personally go to see the Prime Minister, to change that”, telling her counterpart Carrique that he had the full support of the RCMP to take over in Ottawa.
“We warned Peter (Sloly) that he had to succeed because failure would strengthen the protesters,” said Mr.me Lucky.
Mr. Sloly resigned amid widespread criticism of the Ottawa Police Service’s (OPS) handling of protests. He is expected to testify before the commission on Friday and Mr.me Lucki is expected in the coming weeks.
Ottawa no longer has confidence
The Rouleau commission learned earlier Thursday that on February 5, a week after the protests began, Mr.me Lucki had told Mr. Carrique that the federal cabinet was already very concerned, according to text messages exchanged between the two chiefs, which were also entered into evidence.
“In all confidence, (the Government of Canada) is losing (or) has lost confidence in the OPS […] We need to move on to safe action (or) enforcement, writes Mme Lucky. ‘Cause if they go all the way to the Emergencies Act, you or (me) could be put front and center […] what I don’t want. »
Mme Lucki then writes that she was in communication with ministers, without naming them, whom she was trying to calm down. “It’s not easy when they see cranes, structures, horses, bouncy castles in downtown Ottawa. Any suggestions to calm them down? “, she wrote to her Ontario counterpart.
On Thursday afternoon, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino was asked outside the House of Commons if he had lost faith in the Ottawa police in February. He did not say yes or no, saying instead that his government was supporting the police as much as it could during the “illegal occupation”.
We learned at the committee hearings on Wednesday that Mr.me Lucki had emailed Minister Mendicino’s office just hours before his government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act. The RCMP commissioner wrote that to end the blockade, she did not believe that the police had exhausted all existing options under the Criminal Code and the state of emergency already declared by the Ontario government.
When Commissioner Carrique was asked what he thought of this email, he replied, “I would agree with that opinion”.
Minister Mendicino, his colleague in Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair, and Prime Minister Trudeau are among eight federal ministers who have agreed to testify at the inquiry over the next few weeks.