Both the city and police proceeded under the assumption that the protesters would pack up after the first weekend, according to the investigation. In an email entered into evidence Monday, Steve Ball, president of the Ottawa-Gatineau Hotel Association, told the mayor’s office on Jan. 25 — just days before the trucks started in the capital — that someone from the Canada United Truckers Convoy had attempted to reserve hotel rooms for at least 30 days. WATCHES | The lead advisor goes through emails detailing escort plans
The lead advisor goes through emails detailing escort plans
Chief counsel Natalia Rodriguez is reviewing evidence of an email sent to the Hoteliers Association in Ottawa showing protesters reserving rooms for up to 30 days. “He basically laid out the plan, which is basically they’re going to leave their trucks in place, chain them up and try to block all access to the city,” says an email from a staffer in Mayor Jim Watson’s office summarizing the Ball’s message. The email was entered into evidence on Monday. “What is our level of preparedness to respond to this if it goes on for several weeks or months? Who is our lead in responding and potentially in contact with federal authorities?” That message reached Steve Kanellakos — the Ottawa city manager who is sworn in Monday as a member of the Public Order Emergency Committee — and the city’s police. At the time, the Ottawa Police Service signaled that the protest would break up after the first weekend. On Monday, Kanellakos testified that she felt “confident” that Ottawa police were able to handle the protest. “I was sure we were prepared for that first weekend under the assumption that they would leave after the weekend,” he said. “The police are responsible for maintaining public order and … they are very experienced in doing so. In the first weekend we had no reason to question the intelligence, the strategy and the tactics they were using.” Ottawa City Manager Steve Kanellakos appears as a witness before the Public Order Emergency Committee in Ottawa on Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press) Instead, protesters used their vehicles to block major arteries in downtown Ottawa for nearly a month — and what began as a demonstration against the COVID-19 vaccine mandates took on an anti-government nature. The protest was characterized by incessant honking of horns that stopped only after a private citizen requested injunctions. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Kanellakos, who serves as the city hall’s top bureaucrat. Online posts also indicated that at least some of the protesters intended to stay and disrupt the city in an attempt to force the government to agree to their demands. Councilman Riley Brockington also told the town hall that he felt the protesters would stick around after the first weekend. “OPS estimated today that 1,000-2,000 will protest. No chance. Expect many more,” he wrote on January 26. Kanellakos said city hall did not have the capacity to gather information to estimate how many people were coming into town and had to rely on advice from Ottawa police. “The only information we could rely on was from the Ottawa police, in terms of reliable information at the time,” he said. “Ottawa police have a lot of experience dealing with protests in the national capital.” Kanellakos testified that the city’s lawyers felt that Ottawa police did not provide them with sufficient information. But after the first weekend, Kanellakos said, it became clear that the protest was gaining ground and the police did not have enough resources to cope. Documents tendered into evidence on Monday showed that as protesters dug in, city police felt there was “potential for violence and weapons” in some “dangerous and volatile” areas along Rideau Street – where protesters known to police participated in demonstrations. A drone photo Monday, Feb. 7, 2021, shows an overview of a logistics camp set up by protesters in an Ottawa parking lot on Coventry Street between the RCGT Baseball Stadium and the Courtyard Mariott Hotel. (Eric Laporte/Ottawa Drones) Kanellakos said Ottawa police said they also feared any attempt to clear the encampment set up near a baseball field near Coventry Road — which served as a supply hub for the protest — would lead to violence. Mayor Watson declared a state of emergency on February 6, about a week after protesters entered the city.
Confusion about resources
Kanellakos said the provincial government has made it clear it believes the Ottawa crisis was a matter of law enforcement, not politics. He said that on Feb. 9, the city called Sylvia Jones, the county’s attorney general at the time, to ask for more police resources. “I remember the minister saying this was something the chiefs had to deal with [with] the OPP committee for and that elected officials should not be involved in this,” he said. On the day the city declared a state of emergency, Jones said 1,500 officers from the Ontario Provincial Police, other municipal agencies and the RCMP were on the ground. Serge Arpin, chief of staff for the City of Ottawa, appears as a witness at the Public Order Emergency Committee in Ottawa on Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press) “That was inaccurate,” Kanellakos said during cross-examination by former Ottawa police chief Peter Slowley’s lawyer, Tom Curry. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is not on the list of witnesses to appear before the inquiry. Asked by reporters Monday, he said he supported Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the procession. “If you’re disrupting the lives of Ottawa residents every day, disrupting lives and economic flow across our borders, I have zero tolerance for that,” he said.
RCMP ‘lying to you’, mayor’s staffer says
Confusion over how many officers were available to respond to the protest created problems for Ottawa police, Kanellakos said. Serge Arpin, Mayor Watson’s chief of staff, expanded on the resource issue during his testimony Monday afternoon. Arpin said while 250 RCMP officers were committed, 50 were stationed at the Governor General’s home, 50 were assigned to protect the prime minister at his country house and another 50 were tasked with protecting the parliamentary grounds. those officers were not available to Ottawa police. Trucks are parked vertically on Wellington Street in front of the Chateau Laurier on February 10, 2022, as part of a protest against COVID-19 restrictions. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press) In a text exchange presented to the inquiry, Mike Scott, the federal public safety minister’s chief of staff, told Arpin that the RCMP said they “sent over three shifts of 70 each.” “You’re clearly being lied to,” Arpin replies. Arpin said the text reflected the “extreme frustration” he felt in having to tell the mayor that, two weeks into the siege, there had been no real movement to secure additional police resources.
The deal to move protesters was about ‘relief’
Both Arpin and Kanellakos provided new details Monday about an agreement between the city and some protesters to move trucks out of residential areas and onto Wellington Street, the street in front of Parliament. The deal was to move some trucks from residential neighborhoods to the road in front of Parliament Hill Kanellakos said officials knew the plan was not going to end the protest. “They were planning to stay. This was for relief. It was for the relief of these neighborhoods from trucks and everything that comes with that,” he said. However, the deal did not go as planned. First — because of what Kanellakos called “communication issues” — some officers refused to let more trucks onto Wellington Street. Eventually, about 40 vehicles were allowed on Parliament Hill. Second, many of the protesters in trucks and other lighter vehicles refused to move and even blocked the effort to gather the protest on Wellington Street, Kanellakos said. The deal collapses just days before the federal government gives police special powers to end the occupation. Larry Brookson, acting director of the House Protective Service, did not like the plan, and he sent a message to Kanellakos. “Honestly Steve, I’m at a loss how this kind of deal could have been reached with a clear disregard for security, especially considering we just completed a bomb blast assessment that involved a threat to transport explosives via large vehicles. Brookson wrote. WATCHES | “The police are responsible for maintaining public order,” says Ottawa’s city manager
“The police are responsible for maintaining public order,” says Ottawa’s city manager
Steve Kanellakos told the public inquiry investigating the federal government’s use of emergency powers to end the occupation of downtown Ottawa last winter that the city had “no reason to question” police actions and strategy in the early days of the demonstration. During his appearance on Monday, Kanellakos said the House Protection Agency should have been well aware of the plan. He pointed out that by then “hundreds” of heavy vehicles had already occupied Parliament Hill. More questions about what the city knew, what the police knew and how they communicated with each other will dominate the next week of hearings. Mayor Watson and officials from the city police and the Ontario Provincial Police are expected to testify in the coming days. Watson appears before the commission on Tuesday. The Public Order Emergency Committee is looking into the circumstances that…
