The public filed 410 complaints about police conduct during the “freedom convoy” protests in Ottawa last year, but nearly all of them were dismissed.
The Ottawa Police Commission’s 2022 annual report says public complaints nearly doubled from the previous year, with an overall increase of 88% and a 94% growth in complaints about police conduct .
The Provincial Office of the Independent Police Review Director has received over a thousand complaints about the Ottawa Police Service and 571 reports about the conduct of its officers.
Police personnel said in the report that the increase was due to illegal protests against COVID-19 vaccination requirements and other public health measures in January and February 2022, with nearly 38% of all complaints related to the “freedom convoy”.
Of the 410 complaints about police conduct during the protests, 390 were “dismissed” by the Office of the Police Review Director. More than half of the exclusions were because the complainants were not directly affected by the incident or the interaction with the police, according to the report.
It also indicates that 70 other complaints relating to the protests, still active in 2022, have been grouped into two complaints.
Ottawa police have come under heavy criticism for their mishandling of protests, including during last fall’s public inquiry into the federal government’s use of Emergency Measures Act to clean up the streets around Parliament Hill.
Witnesses said during the investigation that there was infighting and disorganization within the force.
Peter Sloly resigned as police chief during the protests as public criticism grew louder. He then defended his decisions as leader, saying the information he had at the time did not suggest the protests would escalate as they have.
The occupation ended after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergency Measures Actgranting police and governments extraordinary powers to end protests.
The public inquiry concluded that a series of police failings had contributed to the deterioration of the situation and ultimately the commissioner of inquiry ruled that the use of emergency powers was justified.
Less use of force
The police commission report also found that there were 21% fewer use of force incidents in 2022 than in 2021.
Police used force in 222 incidents. Of those, 52 were for mentally disordered arrests, 20 were weapons or firearms-related calls, 17 were assaults on an officer and 16 were assaults with a weapon, according to the report.
Ottawa police were called nearly 215,000 times in total, according to the report. About 8,700 of those calls resulted in an arrest and more than 2,000 were mental health apprehensions.