(Ottawa) Ottawa police thought they could manage the “freedom convoy”, but hundreds of trucks from across the country ended up paralyzing downtown Ottawa for three weeks and poisoning the lives of the thousands of residents who call it home. Acting Police Chief Steve Bell testifies Monday on the eighth day of the State of Emergency Commission.
Posted at 12:04 p.m.
“A large, law-abiding demonstration could have been managed,” he said during the first hours of his testimony. He recalled that the demonstrators of the “freedom convoy” had ended up occupying the city center of the federal capital.
“It was unprecedented,” he recalled. Everyone understood that this was unprecedented. »
Mr. Bell temporarily became the chief of the Ottawa Police Service after the surprise resignation of Peter Sloly, at the height of the crisis. He previously managed the squad responsible for analyzing the intelligence provided by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) before the arrival of the demonstrators.
A report entered into evidence on Monday said “some convoy participants or sympathizers may be bringing weapons with them to Ottawa,” but that information was “unconfirmed” and its reliability was unknown.
However, the police had met a Quebecer who reportedly expressed his intention to go to Ottawa on January 29 with a weapon and to use it. The police seized his weapons from his home, but no charges were brought. The report notes that he had expressed regret.
Bell said protesters en route to Ottawa were “extremely law-abiding”, “not engaging in anti-social behaviour”.
OPP intelligence chief Pat Morris said last week that the meteoric fundraising campaign of the “freedom convoy” was a sign that the trucks were going to take root in Ottawa. “Money is a powerful motivator,” he summed up on Wednesday. For him, this was an indication that the protesters had a lot of support and would be able to afford to stay.
Several days before the arrival of the convoy, the OPP estimated that this event would be “long-lasting” and planned its working hours accordingly, either for two weeks or even a month.
The president of the Ottawa hotel association had forwarded to the mayor’s office an email from one of the organizers of the “freedom convoy” who was looking for hotel rooms “within a 15-minute drive” for “approximately 10,000 people” for a “minimum stay of 30 to 90 days”.
According to another email from the hotel association presented in evidence on Monday, protesters had finally booked for only three days, hence the idea among Ottawa police that most were going to leave the city after the weekend .
Steve Bell recalled that there was no indication that protesters opposed to provincial health measures and the federal vaccination requirement for truckers “were going to use the citizens of this city as leverage”. In his testimony, the Acting Chief of Police made it very clear that the Ottawa police had never before had to deal with an occupation where the participants violated the law.
He had begun receiving intelligence reports from the OPP on January 27, the day before the arrival of the “freedom convoy.” His team was in charge of analyzing them for the planning of the necessary staff during the first days of the event.