The Rouleau commission on the state of emergency held its 12e day of public hearings. Although his mandate is primarily to determine whether the federal government was justified in invoking the Emergency Measures Act to dislodge the Freedom Convoy, Judge Paul Rouleau devoted the first days of the public inquiry to one question: What went wrong on the police side so that the movement opposed to sanitary measures could settle for three weeks in front of the Ottawa parliament? Summary of findings and questions still pending.
Ottawa police believed the convoy would only stay a weekend
Curiously, Ottawa police officials did not expect Freedom Convoy protesters to settle in front of the Houses of Parliament in the long term, a development predicted by OPP intelligence reports. Ontario (PPO) as well as certain journalistic articles.
Various documents and testimonies heard at the Rouleau Commission show that the provincial police quickly anticipated the possibility of a long occupation of Ottawa. A report from their intelligence operation on the demonstrations, dubbed Project Hendon, showed as early as mid-January that demonstrators wanted to block the federal capital and remain there until the lifting of health measures. It also notes that some had anti-government motives.
Although then-Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly received the Hendon Project reports as early as Jan. 13, his staff says he didn’t hear about them until Jan. 27, the day before the arrival of trucks in their town. The municipal police force relied on its own, less rigorous intelligence report, which relayed, for example, comments by polemicist Rex Murphy describing the convoy as a “spontaneous” and “middle class” movement.
An Ottawa police officer who says he was first concerned about the discrepancy between the findings of the two forces took time off work when the truckers arrived for a ski trip.
Ex-Chief Sloly also admitted on Friday that he skimmed through the OPP reports, and complained that he also did not have access to information collected by the federal government.
The police quickly called the convoy an “occupation”
“It is no longer a demonstration, but an occupation. The phrase came out Jan. 31 in a meeting between Ottawa police officials.
At this time, the agents realized that the Freedom Convoy was not going to leave their city as planned. Intelligence reports then record many of the crimes committed. City officers and workers report being intimidated by protesters. And the citizens of downtown Ottawa, like the mayor of the city, are putting pressure on the police chief to end the motorized rally.
At the end of a three-week occupation, at least 533 criminal charges were brought against protesters, including at least a dozen for violent crimes. Experts consulted by The duty noted the presence of a dozen weapons-related charges — most of an unspecified type, but at least two specifically mention firearms.
A Quebec group greatly worried the police
“This document refers to the Farfadaas. Are you familiar with Farfadaas? The question made Ottawa Police Superintendent Robert Drummond smile when he appeared on Wednesday.
Yes, like practically all the other police officers called to testify before Judge Rouleau, he knew the Farfadaas. This Quebec group of opponents of health measures was mentioned almost every day during the public hearings of the Rouleau commission. He was also the subject of close surveillance by the police intelligence services, shows various reports.
These followers of the leather jacket decked out with the message ” Fuck Legault camped on the Quebec side, in Gatineau, but were associated with blocking a strategic point in downtown Ottawa, the corner of Sussex and Rideau streets. They were called a “French group” by the English-speaking leaders of the convoy; of “separatists”, sovereign citizens or “anarchists” by the police. The Farfadaas are said to have derailed a first agreement to move disturbing trucks.
This group was also said to have been at the center of the nightlife of the long protest, playing music and consuming alcohol at all hours of the day, according to a police intelligence report. More generally, he was suspected of being the radical fringe of the movement that stuck to the convoy, often listed alongside the racist group Diagolon.
Their leader, Steeve “L’Artiss” Charland, is scheduled to appear before the commission next week. He was arrested during a failed attempt to effect a return of the trucks to Ottawa after their eviction. After a three-week stint behind bars in Ontario, he regained his freedom pending trial for mischief and counseling to commit mischief.
Developing the plan to dislodge the convoy was laborious
Different police testimonies heard during the Rouleau commission agree on the fact that the Ottawa police, very ill-prepared, had no real plan to put an end to the Freedom Convoy before February 9, that is to say 12 days after the arrival of the trucks.
This first plan, signed by former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly, was very quickly thrown in the trash and was never implemented. It was criticized by Ottawa troops themselves — including those close to Chief Sloly — and hacked to pieces by provincial and federal police because of its “too risky” and “non-intelligence-based” nature. » .
The abandonment of this first roadmap notably caused the cancellation of the planned assault by 400 police officers on the street corner occupied by the Quebec group Farfadaas.
A new plan was drawn up on February 13, the day before the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act. These maneuvers did not require the new powers given to the police, but a reinforcement of 1,800 agents from other services.
The OPP was reluctant to comply with this request in the absence of operational details in the initial plan. Its commissioner, Thomas Carrique, also criticized this call for reinforcements – an admission that the police were overwhelmed and which thus made them “vulnerable”, according to him.
Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly tendered his resignation on February 15.
Tow trucks were available, even without emergency measures
One of the new powers given to law enforcement by federal emergency measures was to commandeer heavy tow trucks from private companies. Many of them had previously refused to cooperate with the police during the crisis. However, the City of Ottawa has two of these machines to tow its broken down buses.
OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique candidly admitted Thursday that not only did the Emergencies Act fail to commandeer tow trucks for the final police assault, but he had a workable plan with those owned by the City. The provincial police had compiled a list of seven companies willing to provide them with 34 heavy tow trucks if their identities were concealed. “We would have been able to do the job with or without” these vehicles, assured Commissioner Carrique to Judge Rouleau.