Lawyers for the Public Order Emergency Committee interviewed two members of the National Police Federation over the summer, ahead of the formal hearings currently underway. Both Dennis Miller, a 29-year veteran of the force on leave to serve as the federation’s vice-president, and Steve Madden, a group board member who previously served in the RCMP for 16 years, including in the Parliamentary Protective Services unit, in contact with commanders and other members during convoy demonstrations. A summary of their joint interview was recently entered into evidence. Both men raised concerns about allowing the self-proclaimed Freedom Convoy protesters to park near the parliament chamber. “Mr Madden observed that placing heavy fuel trucks near Parliament Hill posed an unacceptable risk due to the possibility of those trucks exploding, whether by accident or design,” a summary of the interview reads. Miller told the commission’s lawyers that he had policed ​​G20 summits where the RCMP had asked protesters to park away from the central site and then arranged for buses to take people to the protest site. Former Ottawa police chief Peter Slowley testified that he did not believe he had the legal standing under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to prevent protesters from parking their trucks and other vehicles downtown. “I’m a police officer, not a lawyer,” he testified Friday.

Resource concerns

The need for more RCMP officers was almost immediately apparent after the convoy entered the city on January 28. The two RCMP union spokespeople said that by Jan. 30, the head of the force’s national division had declared a state of emergency. Under the RCMP’s collective agreement, a state of emergency allows the RCMP to redeploy members and temporarily waive scheduling and maximum work hours provisions to ensure public safety and the delivery of policing services. Miller said he was told Assistant Commissioner Ches Parsons decided to declare a state of emergency “because it had exhausted the assets and resources of the RCMP based on the National Division.” Sloli has publicly called for about 1,800 additional officers to bolster Ottawa’s police response, including hundreds from the RCMP. As the commission has already heard, both the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police had concerns about Ottawa police’s lack of an operational plan and were cautious about how to use their additional officers. Miler told the committee that Ottawa’s request resulted in an OPS-RCMP meeting, which he did not attend but filled in afterward. “Mr. Miller was informed that during the meeting, OPS representatives compared the Freedom Parade to a terrorist attack on Parliament Hill and argued that the RCMP should be the primary police agency because the protesters were protesting federal government policies “, said the summary of the interview. “RCMP representatives who attended the meeting disagreed and stated that OPS was responsible for policing the Freedom Parade because OPS was the jurisdictional police at the protest site.” In Ontario and Quebec, RCMP officers can enforce federal laws, but must be sworn in as provincial or municipal special constables to enforce provincial and municipal laws. Miller and Madden told the inquiry’s lawyers that the RCMP’s lack of authority to enforce provincial and municipal laws was a barrier to the effective use of RCMP resources to police protests in Ottawa. “Miller said RCMP officers could only act if protesters were openly committing an offense under the Criminal Code, but would not have the authority to act in the much more common cases of protesters committing provincial offences, such as under the the traffic of Ontario’s highways or obeying municipal orders or regulations,” the summary of the interview said. He also said that even before the convoy arrived in Ottawa, the RCMP was reducing its policing powers in the Ottawa area. The RCMP used to keep about 120 officers in Ottawa to patrol the areas around embassies and National Capital Commission territories, but had only 60 patrollers at the time of the convoy protest, according to Miller’s interview. On behalf of the union, both Miller and Madden told the committee they believe the RCMP should take responsibility for security and policing in and around Parliament. A parliamentary committee is currently studying whether Ottawa police should cede control of Wellington Street.