(OTTAWA) The trucks that crippled downtown Ottawa, the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor and other border crossings across the country last winter posed a national security threat, according to Peter Sloly. The former Ottawa police chief completed his testimony to the State of Emergency Commission on Monday.
Posted at 11:36 a.m.
Updated at 7:05 p.m.
He said they were coordinated adversaries, capable of “initiating command and control operations” and who understood the limits of police resources.
“It is obvious that the blockade at Windsor, the furthest point south of Ottawa, was designed to divide our resources at two important and high-risk locations,” he said in cross-examination with federal government attorney Donnaree Nygard.
It was the “first real signal” to him that the convoy of trucks set up in Ottawa and the other blockades elsewhere in the country constituted a threat to national security.
However, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Ontario Provincial Police were reluctant to provide the 1,800 additional officers requested because the Ottawa police did not have a plan, according to an excerpt from the deposition of the Minister of Emergency Preparedness, Bill Blair, presented in evidence Monday.
The public inquiry led by the Franco-Ontarian judge, Paul Rouleau, must determine whether the historic use of Emergency Measures Act by the federal government was justified. This is one of the safeguards included in this legislation.
Finding Tow Trucks on Kijiji
Some startling information surfaced during Mr. Sloly’s testimony. He said the RCMP went to the Kijiji classifieds site “to find heavy-duty tow trucks in Canada.”
Authorities were having trouble finding tractor-trailer owners willing to remove the hundreds of vehicles that were blocking downtown. Some were afraid of reprisals, others supported the “freedom convoy” which opposed health measures against COVID-19 and the vaccination obligation for truckers. The Emergency Measures Act had given them the power to requisition their services.
The names of Bob Rae, former interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations; ex-Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor and ex-Senator Murray Sinclair have been put forward by Mr. Sloly as potential negotiators with the organizers of the “freedom convoy”. It was February 6, a little over a week after the arrival of the trucks in the federal capital.
The former police chief was then responding to a question from the Deputy Minister of Public Safety, Rob Stewart, who asked if there could be a group of negotiators to put an end to the demonstration. Mr. Sloly indicated that the police were about to engage the services of the firm Advanced Symbolics Inc. (ASI) to evaluate the reaction generated by the names of these potential interlocutors thanks to artificial intelligence.
Navigator paid $185,000
ASI was not the only consulting firm hired by Mr. Sloly that also used the services of Navigator, the same crisis management firm hired by Hockey Canada last summer. According to the testimonies heard and the evidence presented to the Commission, ASI and Navigator led the way in the Ottawa police during the crisis, to the point of attending meetings of the general staff, telling them how they should conduct their operations in the field and work within the headquarters itself.
Navigator’s invoice presented in evidence indicates that the Ottawa police paid the firm $185,992.85 for approximately 185 hours of work performed from January 30 to February 15. The firm produced a report Feb. 6 on Mr. Sloly’s reputation on social media and in traditional media. She concludes that only 1% of social media posts demanded the resignation of the chief of police. Peter Sloly ended up leaving his post nine days later.
This information was raised by Ottawa police attorney David Migicovsky on Monday during an acrimonious cross-examination of Mr. Sloly. Judge Paul Rouleau had to intervene a few times to calm things down on both sides.
Sloly said he hired Navigator in consultation with the Ottawa Police Services Board, which oversees police work.
Navigator employees and ASI president and CEO Erin Kelly were in meetings with Ottawa police headquarters to try to find solutions to the crisis. The latter went so far as to suggest in a meeting that the truck convoy was a “national problem and that the Prime Minister had to get us out of it”, referring to Justin Trudeau, according to notes taken during a meeting held a few days after the arrival of the 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, meanwhile, suggested that police use riot gear to show they were doing something. Mr. Sloly then asked them what more he could do. “I received communication advice,” he defended himself. He also denied that the consultants were discussing police tactics.
Yet those were the fears of the senior officers, Patricia Ferguson and Steve Bell, who then reported directly to Mr. Sloly. 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. Mr. Bell terminated Navigator’s contract following his appointment as interim chief.