Ottawa hotels have alerted city officials that Freedom Convoy protesters intend to stay in the nation’s capital for at least 30 days before its arrival in January.
This is according to an email read Monday to the Commission on the state of emergency during the testimony of the general manager of the City of Ottawa, Steve Kanellakos. The message, sent Jan. 25 by Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association President Steve Ball, alerts the City to the fact that protesters were trying to book hotels for 30 to 90 days.
Mr Ball estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 protesters were expected in the capital. A discussion with a truck driver led him to believe that their strategy was to chain the trucks to the track, to leave them there overnight.
Shortly before the arrival of the Convoy, the police had nevertheless indicated that everything would be settled after the first weekend. The police initially underestimated the number of demonstrators and themselves invited the angry truckers to settle in front of the federal parliament, to respect their right to demonstrate.
Mr. Kanellakos clarified on Monday that the city initially believed that everything would be finished by Wednesday February 2 at the latest. Rather, the Freedom Convoy protests disrupted the capital for three weeks, until February 20, which was used as justification by Ottawa to invoke the Emergencies Act.
“From my point of view, it’s not unusual that there is a difference in points of view, like people who think it will be bigger, others who think it will be smaller. The only information we can rely on was information from the police,” who also collected provincial and federal intelligence, explained Mr. Kanellakos to Commissioner Paul Rouleau.
He said the City of Ottawa had a lot of experience with different types of protests, such as farm rallies that include tractors and other heavy trucks. However, these demonstrators always left after the event.
Steve Kanellakos explained that parking officers in Ottawa did not distribute tickets in the “red zone” near Parliament to avoid inflaming the situation, described as “volatile”.
Although the City of Ottawa has two heavy tow trucks to move its disabled buses, these were never used to move trucks during the occupation. Its operators “feared for their safety”, according to Mr. Kanellakos. “You need to secure the area before towing. »
Ottawa’s appeals to the province and the federal government for more heavy-duty tows met with no success. The federal emergency measures were intended in particular to force the cooperation of private tugs.
The police also feared to intervene with truckers redirected by the City to the Ottawa baseball stadium. Having become a real “camp”, the agents feared that weapons would end up in the trucks. The Parliamentary Protective Service (PPS) also prepared for the scenario of a bomb explosion in one of the trucks.
The Rouleau Commission on the state of emergency is in its second week of hearings, out of a total of six. The public inquiry must determine whether it was justified for the federal government to invoke emergency measures to dislodge the Freedom Convoy, a protest movement that disrupted Ottawa and border points across the country last winter.
More details will follow.