A group of Quebec protesters opposed to health measures found themselves unwittingly at the heart of a catastrophic police failure in Ottawa and a change of plan by the authorities, shortly before the invocation of emergency measures by the federal government, reveals the public inquiry.
“You would be very kind to help us to help these 42 truckers, which are “parked” in front of the parliament. If them others leave […]the siege is in danger,” implores Quebec protester Steeve Charland in a video posted online and filmed on his cell phone on February 8, in the midst of the occupation created by the Freedom Convoy.
The very next day, the police hatched a plan to dislodge his group from a street corner. An internal disagreement, however, caused the cancellation of the major operation, for which 400 police officers were stationed in an Ottawa hotel, ready to intervene.
The ex-leader of the identity group La Meute was surrounded by opponents of government measures against COVID-19 dressed in the same leather jacket on which one could read “Fuck Legault” and who nicknamed themselves “Farfadaas”. The group was camping in Gatineau, but police linked it to a blockade at the corners of Sussex and Rideau streets.
Different testimonies heard during the Commission on the state of emergency suggest that the authorities had great difficulty in assessing whether the group posed a public danger. In the end, the police never intervened to free this street corner before the invocation of emergency measures. She had in the meantime been forced to completely revise her action plan.
Criminals, according to the mayor
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson claimed in his own testimony before the commission that his then-police chief, Peter Sloly, told him that “criminal elements” from Quebec were present at precisely that corner. . He added that these people were “related to bikers”.
The “Farfadaas” were also described as “hostile” and “bullying” by Deputy Chief Patricia Ferguson, in her testimony Thursday. “They were of those who said they held the line [hold the line] ! she said, to illustrate the danger of attacking these individuals head-on.
However, the Ontario Provincial Police had informed the municipal police officers that these followers of the leather jacket “do not [constituaient] not a violent group, even though they are opposed to pandemic restrictions etc. “, According to intelligence agent Patrick Morris, who testified Wednesday evening.
Their leader, Mr. Charland, nicknamed “L’Artiss”, was finally arrested on the sidelines of a failed attempt to form a new convoy to Ottawa, shortly after the return to normal in the streets of the federal capital. He faces charges of mischief, among others. He spent three weeks behind bars in Ontario, but is currently out on bail awaiting trial.
At least 533 criminal charges have been laid against Freedom Convoy participants in Ottawa, documents filed with the Emergency Commission on Thursday show, including several for violent and firearms crimes.
Strategy challenged
The rout of the police intervention aimed at dislodging the “Farfadaas” from an Ottawa street corner illustrates a fundamental problem within the police ranks: the strategy of their leader was contested, even among his closest collaborators. A city councilor called the situation “an insurrection” on Wednesday.
According to the deputy chief of police of Ottawa, Patricia Ferguson, such a muscular police intervention was “too risky” given the exhausted and insufficient personnel of the police force. She presented her former boss Peter Sloly as an intransigent man, using micromanagement, a follower of the hard line rather than the negotiation.
She even referred to paranoid speeches Mr. Sloly would have made about provincial and federal police services, which “conspired” in the service of their “political masters”, according to him. Unlike his former boss, Mr.me Ferguson believed that police liaison officers could have made gains through negotiation and good relations with protesters.
A survey of To have to rather demonstrated that the tolerant attitude of the police was interpreted by the demonstrators as proof of the legality of their actions, at least in the early stages of the convoy.
Police officer Patricia Ferguson notably indicated Thursday that her service had no real plan before February 9, and that it was torn to pieces by the “integrated planning task force”, formed with provincial partners and federal. This plan, signed by Chief Sloly, has been criticized for not being backed by intelligence and has been called too risky, among other things.
Peter Sloly resigned the day after the invocation of federal emergency measures. He is expected to appear next week before the Rouleau commission.