Ottawa Police were unable to predict ‘community trauma’ from convoy protests, interim chief tells Emergencies Act inquiry

Open this photo in gallery:

The Ottawa Police Service could not have predicted the level of harm convoy protesters would inflict on city residents, its interim chief said Monday as the Emergencies Act inquiry also learned that a senior police officer questioned the “bizarre disconnect” between intelligence reports and the service’s operational plans.

Interim Chief Steve Bell said that prior to the arrival of protesters in Ottawa on Jan. 28, the service had no intelligence that indicated how protesters would “leverage” community members to make their point heard. The protesters travelled to the capital in big rigs, pick-up trucks and other vehicles to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the federal government.

“The community trauma and violence to our community that did occur wasn’t anticipated,” Interim Chief Bell said. “Nobody knew that was going to be the tactic that the mob that got here was going to actually engage in.”

Interim Chief Bell offered the most forceful defence of the Ottawa police response to the protests that’s been heard so far during Public Order Emergency Commission hearings. In previous days, the inquiry has learned from other witnesses about how the Ottawa police was overwhelmed by the convoy, struggled to develop a plan to end it, was beset by staffing issues, and had planned solely for a protest that would last two days, despite intelligence strongly indicating the possibility of a much longer event.

The commission’s central purpose is to determine whether the federal government contravened the law in its use of the Emergencies Act in responding to the highly-disruptive, three-week protest in Ottawa, as well as several border blockades.

Frank Au, a senior lawyer representing the inquiry, pushed back on the interim chief’s assertion, pointing to several pieces of intelligence the service possessed, as well as “common sense inference,” indicating that the convoy likely had not travelled across the country just to stay in Ottawa for a single weekend.

“One may argue the combination of the large number of people and trucks, with the expression of an intent to stay for some time – until the mandates are lifted – logically, [would] lead to this risk of social trauma,” the lawyer said.

Premier Doug Ford to fight summons to testify at Emergencies Act Commission

In recent hearings, the inquiry has heard issues around the sharing and assessing of intelligence within the Ottawa police, and in particular, about a series of reports authored by the Ontario Provincial Police. The commission, which is headed by Justice Paul Rouleau, is on its eighth day of hearings, which are being held daily in Ottawa until Nov. 25.

As the convoy made its way toward Ottawa, the OPP was working to track its size, plans and intentions, which it summarized in reports to police agencies, including the Ottawa police. By the time it arrived, OPP had referred, in several different reports, to protesters using drones, arranging porta-potties, fencing and security in Ottawa, and transporting at least two pieces of heavy equipment. They also note the convoys headed to Ottawa included at least 1,300 vehicles, lacked a clear end date to their demonstration, and “may gridlock” areas around Parliament Hill.

In his testimony, Interim Chief Bell argued that the OPP’s reports did not “specifically or generally” identify the “activities” the protesters would ultimately come to engage in, such as blaring horns. Interim Chief Bell said that he received and read the OPP’s reports on the convoy for the first time on Jan. 27. The OPP began issuing intelligence reports about the convoy on Jan. 13.

The OPP’s report from Jan. 27 warned that though protesters had expressed the intention to protest lawfully, they likely would not have ability to control “fringe elements,” some of whom “may view the occupation of public or private property as justified.”

When the protests began, Interim Chief Bell was the deputy chief in charge of intelligence, information and investigation, but he assumed the role of interim chief when then Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly resigned on Feb. 15, amid mounting criticism.

According to a summary of an interview tabled at the commission on Monday, Ottawa police Superintendent Robert Bernier challenged the adequacy of the plan that the service crafted to deal with the protests, but was told not to worry. Before the convoy protesters arrived, Supt. Bernier was concerned they would “cause serious disorder in the city” and based on the OPP’s Project Hendon intelligence reports that he had read, said he was not surprised by the scale of the protest on the first weekend.

Supt. Bernier is slated to testify later this week.

He said he told his supervisor, Supt. Robert Drummond, “there seemed to be a bizarre disconnect between the intelligence contained in the Project Hendon reports and OPS’s preparations.”

The superintendent’s comment was put to Interim Chief Steve Bell during his testimony on Monday. In response, the interim chief said “those issues were never highlighted to me” and he maintained that “the intelligence and the planning team were very tightly connected.”

Both Supt. Bernier and Supt. Drummond fell under then-deputy chief Bell’s command.

Supt. Bernier said the convoy was first brought to his attention during a Jan. 18 planning call – 10 days before the protesters arrived. On that call, the presenter told the group, which included a number of Ottawa police leaders, the convoy “would arrive in Ottawa on January 29 and attempt to take over the capital.”

Supt. Bernier intervened and stressed the need for the Ottawa police to plan for the event, including looping in intelligence, his interview summary details.

On Jan. 27, Supt. Bernier also raised concerns with Inspector Russell Lucas, who was the incident commander for the convoy. Supt. Bernier asked Insp. Lucas whether the police had “developed mass arrest plans,” but he was told not to worry because the convoy organizers were being co-operative and would leave after the first weekend, according to the superintendent’s interview summary. He also asked Insp. Lucas whether the police had developed a public order plan, and when he was told the service was bringing in 13 extra members from the emergency service unit, he expressed concerns that would not suffice.

According to the document, Supt. Bernier received an operational plan on Jan. 28 – after trucks were already downtown – that he characterized as a “mere traffic plan” and he asked whether there was more to it. He received a more complete plan overnight, but he was concerned that it was based on a two-day event, when the OPP intelligence reports warned that “protesters were intending to stay until their demands were met.”

Under questioning from OPP lawyer Christopher Diana, Interim Chief Bell defended how the service used the OPP’s reports – and he argued its response to the protest was “intelligence-led.” In testimony last week, Ottawa police Acting Deputy Chief Patricia Ferguson conceded the service should have given more credibility to intelligence indicating protesters might stay for a long time and that its plans were not intelligence-led.

Asked by Mr. Au, commission counsel, whether he saw any disconnect between the information in the OPP’s intelligence reports and how the service planned for the convoy protest – as Supt. Bernier had – Interim Chief Bell said that he did not, noting that the information had been “fluid.”

During an interview with the commission ahead of his testimony, which was also tabled Monday, the interim chief did acknowledge that the service was “exceptionally unprepared” for the convoy’s entrenchment.

The Ottawa police did detail the unprecedented nature of the protest in an internal intelligence assessment dated Jan. 28, which was also tabled Monday. The assessment notes, “we expect to see a huge volume of vehicles and large transport trucks clogging city roads,” with a “quickly growing financial fund” that could pay for food, lodging, fuel and legal costs.

The commission also learned Monday that in the early hours of Feb. 14 – the day Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act – RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki sent an e-mail to federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s chief of staff about the use of the act.

“I am of the view that we have not yet exhausted all available tools that are already available through the existing legislation,” she wrote. “There are instances where charges could be laid under existing authorities for various Criminal Code offences occurring right now in the context of the protest.”

Mr. Sloly, OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique, Supt. Bernier, and several other OPP and Ottawa police officials are set to testify later this week.