(Ottawa) Police forces would have succeeded in dislodging the “freedom convoy” without the new emergency powers granted by the federal government, according to the person in charge of the integrated planning cell composed of the Ottawa police, the Provincial Police (OPP) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Posted at 5:01 p.m.
Police forces already have powers to seize or tow vehicles, OPP Chief Superintendent Carson Pardy said during his testimony to the Commission on the state of emergency. “So we didn’t need the Emergency Measures Act “, he said.
The public inquiry chaired by Justice Paul Rouleau must determine whether the federal government was right to use this legislation for the first time in its history to put an end to the “freedom convoy” in Ottawa and the blockades of border crossings. elsewhere in the country.
Hundreds of trucks from across the country paralyzed the city center of the federal capital for three weeks in January and February. They demanded the lifting of provincial health measures against COVID-19 and the vaccination obligation that had been imposed by the federal government on truckers crossing the Canada-US border.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Pardy said the Ontario Ministry of Transportation helped police find tow trucks. One of the problems encountered very early on by the City of Ottawa and its police department was the refusal of all the towing companies contacted, either because they feared for the safety of their employees or because they supported the convoy. of trucks.
The planning cell of the vast police operation which put an end to the demonstration discussed much the new powers granted on February 14 by the declaration of the national state of emergency. Among them, that of requisitioning tow trucks. These powers have been incorporated into the plan being developed.
“It helped, I’m not going to say the opposite,” acknowledged the chief superintendent.
“In my humble opinion, we would have reached the same solution with the plan without these two laws,” he said, referring to the declarations of emergency by the Ontario government and the federal government.
In cross-examination, he admitted that the Emergency Measures Act had made it possible to eliminate certain resistances. According to an email exchange presented by the federal government’s lawyer, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation had only managed to obtain ten tow trucks from two companies. The federal government maintains that the declaration of emergency was “a reasonable and necessary decision”.