(Ottawa) The idea of resolving the crisis with the help of an independent mediator did not please the federal government, according to the mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson. A motion to request such an appointment was therefore never presented to the municipal council, even though it had already been drafted.
Posted at 11:26
The mayor is the ninth witness on Tuesday to give his version of the facts to the Commission on the state of emergency. He expressed his frustration at the slowness of the Ontario government and the federal government to respond to his calls for help, especially since the participants in the convoys were demonstrating against the sanitary measures and the obligation to vaccinate, which were the responsibility provincial and federal.
As early as January 31, the fourth day of the protest, Mayor Watson alluded in an appeal with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the need for assistance from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Ottawa police were not up to the task.
Hundreds of trucks and thousands of people paralyzed downtown Ottawa. Mayor Watson says ‘no one took seriously’ an email from one of the truck convoy organizers sent days before the protest to the president of the hotel association demanding 10,000 hotel rooms for a period of 30 to 90 days. Information from organizers was constantly changing, he said, and it seemed unrealistic since the total number of hotel rooms available across the city is 11,000.
Under pressure, city councilors tried to find a solution. The Ontario government refused to get involved, Premier Doug Ford going so far as to refuse to participate in a tripartite federal-provincial-municipal table. This is how the idea of asking the federal government to appoint an independent mediator to resolve the crisis was suggested. A motion was drafted, but it was never brought to city council for a vote.
When consulted, the federal government then made its refusal known very quickly to the mayor’s office. “This idea was not supported at all by the federal government,” he said.
In his opening statement last week, the federal government’s lawyer said “careful consideration was given to all options” before resorting as a last resort to the Emergency Measures Act.
The State of Emergency Commission must determine whether the government was right to use this law for the first time in its history to end the “freedom convoy” in Ottawa and the blockades of border crossings elsewhere in the country . This is one of the two safeguards provided for in this legislation adopted in 1988.