(Ottawa) Navigator, a firm hired by former Ottawa Police Service Chief Peter Sloly, produced a report on its reputation on February 6, just over a week after the arrival of the “convoy of freedom” in the federal capital. ASI, another communications firm, went so far as to suggest in a meeting with the general staff that this was a “national problem” and that the “prime minister” must do something to end it. to the situation.
Posted at 11:36 a.m.
Updated at 12:15 p.m.
This information was raised by Ottawa police attorney David Migicovsky on Monday during an acrimonious cross-examination of Mr. Sloly at the 13e day of the Commission on the state of emergency. Judge Paul Rouleau had to intervene a few times to calm things down.
The consulting firm Navigator was monitoring media and social networks. A report filed in evidence and dated February 6 concludes that only 1% of social media posts then demanded the resignation of the chief of police. Peter Sloly ended up resigning nine days later.
Navigator is the same crisis management company hired by Hockey Canada last summer. The sports organization then wanted to change the public’s perception of a first fund that had notably been used to cover claims for sexual assault.
Sloly said he hired her in consultation with the Ottawa Police Services Board, which oversees police work.
Navigator employees and Erin Kelly, president and CEO of market research and polling firm Advanced Symbolics Inc. (ASI), were in meetings with Ottawa police headquarters to try to find solutions to the crisis.
The latter suggested that it was “a national problem and that the prime minister had to get us out of this”, referring to Justin Trudeau, according to notes taken during a meeting a few days after the arrival trucks in the federal capital. She also said that the police must adopt “a communication strategy to demonstrate that the problem goes beyond [de la Ville] of Ottawa”.
A Navigator consultant suggests among the solutions that the police use riot control equipment. “I received communication advice,” defended Mr. Sloly. He denied that the consultants were discussing police tactics.
Yet these were the fears of two senior officers who reported directly to Mr. Sloly. In her notes, acting deputy chief Patricia Ferguson has reservations about bringing Navigator to daily staff meetings. In the document introduced into evidence on Monday, she writes that she fears it will influence the police chief’s decisions and could put officers in the field at risk.
Steve Bell, who became acting Ottawa police chief after Mr. Sloly’s departure, considered it “inappropriate” for police operations to be conducted according to Navigator’s communications strategy. He feels that the Ottawa Police Service should instead develop its action plan and then add a communications strategy to support it.
His notes showed that the president of Navigator identified the lack of police response as a problem when a group of people removed fencing erected to protect the National War Memorial and told Mr. Bell that he ” should take a more active approach.
Mr. Sloly had retained him to provide strategic communications advice during the “freedom convoy”. The bill for these two weeks of work, from January 30 to February 15, amounts to $185,992.85. Mr. Bell terminated the contract following his appointment as Acting Chief.