The Trudeau government was losing faith in the abilities of the Ottawa police to handle the Freedom Convoy crisis from the first week of the occupation, according to the commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). In a text message, Brenda Lucki alluded to the Emergencies Act as early as February 5.
“If they go as far as the Emergencies Act, you and I could be in the lead… Not something I want,” Commissioner Lucki wrote in a text message Feb. 5.
His message, released as part of the Emergency Commission hearings, was addressed to his counterpart in the Ontario Provincial Police, Commissioner Thomas Carrique. The latter testified before Judge Paul Rouleau on Thursday.
“Between you and me only, the GoC [gouvernement du Canada] is losing / has lost confidence in the OPS [Service de police d’Ottawa]… We have to move towards security actions / law enforcement, “he said in his conversation with Brenda Lucki, in the form of confidence, on February 5.
The big boss of the provincial police did not want to specify to the commission if he still had confidence in the Ottawa police. “I felt that by making our contribution, we could come up with an operational plan. That’s what finally happened,” he replied.
Trucks far from parliament
When the trucks carrying the anti-sanitation protesters arrived in the federal capital, Commissioner Carrique was responsible for ensuring that the intelligence was properly shared with the chiefs of police in his province.
However, he told the lawyers of the Rouleau commission that he understood that the operational plan of the Ottawa police was to prevent trucks from accessing the parliamentary precinct. ” [Les manifestants] should instead take buses or shuttles to downtown protests,” he believed.
In effect, the Ottawa police invited the trucks to set up in a “red zone” directly in front of the parliament, a decision that was later criticized.
The operational plan, also made public at the Rouleau commission, included descriptions of the convoy that were probably inspired by a column by English-speaking polemicist Rex Murphy to the effect that it was a spontaneous and popular event. Its author, the police officer Russell Lucas, reassured his colleagues during a meeting, on the eve of the arrival of the trucks: “the main organizing truckers are cooperative and are for the most part pro-police”.
In the end, the Ottawa police’s repeated request for 1,800 officers to dislodge the Freedom Convoy demonstrators displeased Ontario Commissioner Thomas Carrique. “It showed the protest that the police were overwhelmed,” he said in his pre-interview.