:
Good evening, Mr. Chair, and members. Thank you for inviting me to assist the committee's work in reviewing the declaration of the Emergencies Act.
I've been a city councillor for the Rideau-Vanier ward since 2010. The western boundary of my ward runs along the Rideau Canal to the Chateau Laurier. Parliament and many other federal institutions, which were the focus of the protest, border the neighbourhoods of Sandy Hill, Lowertown, and Vanier, which were the areas hardest hit by the occupation.
[Translation]
I have a few minutes for my remarks and would like to devote that time to informing the committee about the impact the protests had on the residents and businesses in downtown Ottawa.
[English]
During the occupation, the impact on residents in my community was unbearable. It severely impacted their well-being, the livability of the ward, and their safety and forced many businesses to close during the occupation.
Upon its arrival, the “freedom convoy” occupation had devastating impacts on our residents and businesses. This was initially felt from the unbearable noise. The protesters used truck horns and train horns almost constantly day and night. Fireworks further added to the constant barrage of noise. The impact of the horns was traumatizing for residents living in my area and those living in the neighbouring ward of Somerset.
At the Public Order Emergency Commission, residents testified as to how the noise had a detrimental impact on their mental and emotional health. Severe sleep deprivation was common. These conditions made the downtown unlivable.
[Translation]
Some people are still traumatized by the experience even now. These concerns were reported to me at the time via hundreds of emails and telephone calls that I received from the businesses and residents affected. The constant engine noise of the trucks parked on our streets and the gases they emitted had an impact on them, and the way the trucks were parked created a chaotic environment that resembled a kind of fortress. In the circumstances, the trucks were being used as a weapon.
[English]
I walked the streets of my ward during the protests. I can tell you that the streets of downtown Ottawa were in complete chaos. I witnessed open fires in the streets, the delivery of tanks of fuel to protesters in close proximity to residents and businesses. At the intersection of Rideau and Sussex, right beside the Senate building, protesters set up DJ booths and barbeques. I also saw large trucks driving on residential streets and, in some instances, driving in the wrong direction. In the ByWard Market, which is also in my area, many pickup trucks parked everywhere and anywhere, including on sidewalks, without any consequences: there were no tickets, and no towing. Aside from occupying space in our city and on our walkways, these trucks served another purpose: they represented an assault on our communities through aggressive and intimidating behaviour by people participating in the occupation, which created an environment of chaos and lawlessness.
The chaos forced numerous businesses and institutions in the area to close. This included the Rideau Centre, the Rideau library branch, the University of Ottawa, the Andrew Fleck Child Care Centre, and many others.
The Rideau Centre has historically never had to close more than a day a year. The centre was closed for 24 consecutive days due to this occupation. This meant that 300 stores and more than 1,500 part-time employees were unable to generate income.
For the Rideau Centre, each day represented a loss of revenue of $2 million for the businesses. The closure of the Rideau Centre also compounded the effects on the surrounding Rideau Street and the ByWard Market. Small and independent businesses were severely impacted. Most businesses on Rideau Street and in the ByWard Market were force to close. Although lockdown restrictions were no longer in effect, most of these businesses could not stay open. Groups of protesters were demanding to dine indoors at local restaurants in violation of public health measures and orders. The businesses faced stark choices: close entirely, confront protesters and ask them to leave, or serve them in violation of public health regulations. Many opted to close out of fear.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
:
Good evening. I thank the committee and its members for inviting me to assist in this important review of the use of the Emergencies Act.
Tonight, I plan to cover a little bit about my background and a few areas that have been the subject of interest, certainly from the public inquiry that I testified at on Monday.
By way of background, I currently serve as the city manager of the City of Ottawa. I've held that position since May 2016. Prior to becoming city manager, I served as director general of the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police Service, which was the predecessor to the Ottawa Police Service. I left policing and joined the City of Ottawa in 2000 as the general manager of emergency and protective services. I then had various roles within the city before becoming the city manager.
I want to begin by providing the committee with a brief sense of my role and responsibilities as city manager.
The City of Ottawa has 10 departments. Each of those departments has a general manager who reports directly to me. The city manager is directed by city council through the various bylaws and resolutions which delegate the city manager with various powers and responsibilities. In turn, I delegate council's requests to the 10 general managers that support me. In this role, I have oversight over Mr. Kim Ayotte, who is the general manager of emergency protective services.
I want the committee to understand that the Ottawa Police Service was the lead agency for the response to the “freedom convoy”. It was in charge of making operational and tactical decisions in response to the convoy. Meanwhile, the city's role was to support the Ottawa Police Service as required and manage city services to minimize the impact of this protest on those services.
When the convoy arrived, the ticketing and towing of large trucks inside the control zone was not pursued by the city. The OPS, Ottawa police, was concerned that enforcing bylaws in the control zone could trigger violence. The city also could not independently decide to close some streets, because OPS was the lead agency and we were part of an integrated management system.
In addition to managing city operations during the protest, I also engaged in negotiations with the protesters at the request of Ottawa police.
On February 8, 2022, I received a call from Deputy Chief Bell of the Ottawa Police Service. He told me that members of the Ottawa Police Service police liaison team were coming to my office. He said that the PLT—the acronym for the police liaison team—wanted to discuss a potential meeting with some of the protesters. I attended the meeting and was told that OPS negotiations with the protesters had broken down.
I was advised that the protesters wanted to meet with a senior city official and asked whether I would attend such a meeting. I agreed to meet with the protesters, on the advice of and with the support of OPS senior command. The PLT suggested that I ask the protesters to remove trucks from some neighbourhoods in return for a meeting with the mayor. Later that day, I met with some of the protest leaders. I advised them that the mayor might consider meeting with the protest leaders if the protesters moved trucks out of the residential areas. Members of the PLT were present for part of that meeting. After the meeting, I briefed the mayor and his chief of staff on the general principles that were discussed in that meeting.
I had subsequent calls with OPS senior command, on February 11 with Chief Sloly, and on the 13th with Chief Sloly, Acting Deputy Chief Ferguson and Deputy Chief Bell, to update them on the status of the city's discussions on the protesters. Everyone agreed that getting protesters out of residential areas would be positive for residents and reduce the footprint of the protesters.
I attended another meeting with protesters and Mr. Ayotte on February 13 to discuss the logistics of moving trucks out of the neighbourhoods. Acting Superintendent Rob Drummond accompanied us. OPS senior command had assigned him to negotiate the details and conditions of the move.
Throughout the ensuing days, the mayor, through his chief of staff, and a third party facilitator, Mr. Dean French, entered into discussions with protesters to remove some trucks from the downtown core. Our efforts resulted in approximately 40 heavy trucks and an unknown number of light trucks and vehicles moving out of the residential areas.
At around the same time that we were successfully moving these trucks, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act. To my knowledge, the city never requested the invocation of the act.
That said, and in closing, the “freedom convoy” had a significant impact on our city's services and its residents. It was the first time that protesters used heavy trucks to paralyze a city that I'm aware of. While the city did not ask the federal government to invoke the act, we were grateful when it finally did.
Mr. Chair, I welcome questions from the committee, and I thank you for inviting me here today.
:
Good evening, Chair and committee.
Thank you for inviting me here today. I look forward to answering your questions and assisting the committee in whatever way I can.
I'm the general manager of emergency and protective services for the City of Ottawa. As such, I oversee approximately 2,500 staff. I'm supported by the city's director of public safety services, the director of by-law and regulatory services, the fire chief and the fire and the paramedic services, all of whom report directly to me. Previously, I was the chief of the Ottawa Fire Services before being promoted to my current position. As the general manager of emergency and protective services, I report to the city manager, Steve Kanellakos.
Before I answer your questions, I thought I could best assist the committee by providing it with an overview of the city's emergency operations centre, the EOC. The EOC was central to the city's efforts during the “freedom convoy”. The EOC receives information from all city departments and convenes and monitors emergency situations once the situation is brought to our attention. During an emergency situation, the EOC status may escalate from “monitoring” to “enhanced”, from “enhanced” to “activated”, and then from “activated” to “a state of emergency”. This exact progression took place during the “freedom convoy”.
The EOC is staffed by duty officers from each of the city's departments. The EOC operates under the oversight of the emergency operations centre control group, which is chaired by the city manager, Mr. Kanellakos. The city is also a member of the national capital regional command centre, the NCRCC. The NCRCC includes representatives from the RCMP, OPP, Ottawa Police Service and Parliamentary Protective Service.
The NCRCC acts as an area command during an active multi-agency police operation in the region. The NCRCC was mobilized on January 28, 2022, to respond to the “freedom convoy”. The Ottawa Police Service led the NCRCC incident command and was thus the lead agency during the protest in Ottawa.
With that structure in mind, I want to now turn to the city's role during the “freedom convoy”. The handling of the “freedom convoy” fell within the incident management of the Ottawa Police Service. The city's role—and mine—was to support the OPS to mitigate the impact of the protest on residents and businesses. The goal of the city was to get the convoy in and out of the city as soon as possible. To this end, we responded to the operational decisions made by the Ottawa police.
For example, on January 29, 2022, the Ottawa police instructed bylaw officers to not ticket or tow vehicles in the red zone without police approval. Later, bylaw officers and other city personnel and services were directed not to enter the hot zone—or the red zone—without police escort, due to safety concerns.
Despite our efforts and those of the Ottawa police, the protests had a grave impact on our city's communities and social services. Thus, routes had to be rerouted, and some individuals receiving care at home had to be relocated. The city also had to work with convoy organizers to maintain an emergency lane throughout the downtown for emergency service vehicles throughout the relevant period. The city experienced both setbacks and successes throughout this period.
From my perspective, the city learned some valuable lessons from the convoy demonstration. The city's response to “Rolling Thunder” is a prime example. Before the “freedom convoy” occurred, the city did not install traffic barriers after it was advised not to by Ottawa police. However, when we became aware of the “Rolling Thunder” protest, we worked with Ottawa police to block roads to the downtown core based on knowledge gained from the “freedom convoy”. I suspect that in the future these types of efforts will be invaluable in preventing an event like the “freedom convoy” from occurring again.
I am pleased to be here today to share lessons learned with you. I look forward to answering your questions.
Thank you very much.
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Members of the Senate and House of Commons, it is a pleasure for me to be here in my capacity as mayor of the City of Ottawa.
[English]
I'm mayor for the next 18 days and four hours and three minutes and two seconds.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. I recently appeared before Justice Rouleau and the Public Order Emergency Commission on October 18, 2022.
I strongly believe and hope that the important work done by the commission and this joint committee will help prevent this city's residents and those of other Canadian cities from ever having to endure such a horrendous occupation.
[Translation]
In the past 25 years, I have had the privilege of representing the residents of Ottawa at Queen's Park and City Hall.
[English]
As mayor of the City of Ottawa, I've witnessed the city's residents triumph over a number of extraordinary challenges, particularly, as we all dealt with in our own communities, COVID-19.
In recent years in Ottawa this included events like the record flooding of the Ottawa River in 2017 and 2019, which forced many of our residents to evacuate their homes. In-between the two floods Ottawa and its surrounding areas were wracked by a tornado that toppled power lines and homes, and as you may recall, just this summer, residents endured a thunderstorm that destroyed tens of thousands of trees and property throughout the region, and left tens of thousands without power for days and in many instances, weeks.
The arrival of the truck convoy in January 2022 and the ensuing occupation of our city was another threat to the safety and security of our residents.
[Translation]
The Ottawa Police Service and the city have done a good job of working together on many occasions to protect the city in numerous crises over the years.
[English]
Trucks first started arriving in Ottawa, in front of the Parliament buildings, in fact, on January 27, 2022. I recall seeing a few trucks parked on city streets while additional trucks arrived the following day.
After the first weekend of protest, it became clear to me that Ottawa's police service had lost Wellington Street. A protest had ended and an occupation began.
Let me start by setting the table for MPs and senators and members of the public. Can you imagine a similar truck convoy demonstration taking over your downtown city or village? Can you imagine me showing up in your hometown with these demonstrators, rubbing shoulders with them, taking pictures of them, bringing them coffee and Timbits? Can you imagine how disgusting and disrespectful that would have been to your residents if their own community was under siege from the 24-7 noise and fumes over a three-week period?
As mayor I was in regular communication with the OPS as requested throughout the time frame of the convoy. I understood almost immediately that the OPS required additional resources.
On January 3 I received a call from the . I explained that additional officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were necessary. From then onward I continued to push for assistance from our federal and provincial partners. On February 3, 2022, I spoke to and impressed upon him the need for additional resources. On February 7, at the request of the Ottawa Police Services Board, my office prepared and I co-signed a letter with the chair of the board seeking those additional resources. The letter was addressed to the Prime Minister, Minister Mendicino, Premier Ford and then Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones. The purpose of the letter was very clear: Ottawa required more resources to bring an end to the protest.
[Translation]
That action was extraordinary because the chief of police normally makes this type of request to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and to the Ontario Provincial Police.
[English]
I agreed to sign these letters. I was told that the OPS was not successful in its request to obtain more police officers.
At around the same time I'd also declared a state of emergency in the City of Ottawa. While the declaration did not provide my office with any new substantial powers, I believe it was symbolically important. It relayed to our residents and to the country that the City of Ottawa was in fact under siege and could not end the occupation on our own.
I also participated in meetings with our federal partners. As I've mentioned previously, the Province of Ontario regrettably declined to take part in this dialogue of the tripartite committee. In these meetings, I echoed our request for more police resources to support the OPS in its efforts to reclaim our city.
As you know, on February 14, 2022, the Emergencies Act was invoked for the first time since its passing in 1988. Although the federal government did not consult me on its use, I fully supported and fully support the introduction of the Emergencies Act. Up until that point it was not clear to me that the earlier police efforts would be successful in bringing about a peaceful end to such a massive demonstration.
I take this opportunity to remind honourable members of the joint committee that the combined presence of these vehicles, these hundreds of 18-wheelers and smaller vehicles, felt like an overpowering and threatening armada to the residents of Ottawa.
I believe that the biggest challenge during the protest was the inability to move the trucks that embedded themselves on our streets. The Emergencies Act resolved this issue by forcing tow truck companies to provide towing vehicles.
In the end more than 1800 officers—which we asked for—came to Ottawa under OPS command, including officers from the OPP, RCMP and a number of municipal police forces from as far away as Alberta. Ottawa residents will be forever grateful to those men and women in uniform who came to the aid of our city during the unlawful occupation.
The occupation of our city was a horrific experience for people who lived in the downtown core and was unlike anything our city has ever faced before. It affected those who work in the downtown core and call it home, our tourists who want to visit the Parliament Buildings, and the local businesses that depend on peace and stability for their livelihoods. It's had long-lasting impacts on some of our residents' mental and physical health, and has had a detrimental impact on our tourism industry.
I want to share a few examples, in conclusion.
[Translation]
The first example I want to cite is that of Montfort Hospital.
[English]
It is very important to our community and it had to put staff in hotel rooms nearby to avoid significant traffic delays, which ultimately affected their shifts over a two-week stretch. It led to a steep decline in activity in the emergency room, which impacted their patients negatively.
As well, 13 families who travel to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario for cancer therapy were impacted by the convoy. They had to either delay or reschedule their treatment. A CHEO spokesperson described the occupation as “unnecessary stress on top of what is already...a stressful situation for kids and their families...whose treatments are critical for their best outcomes”.
A local media outlet reported on February 1 that an anonymous downtown resident had been “living a nightmare in her home just minutes away from Parliament Hill”, and that “Constant honking and noise outside her building, as well as the smell of diesel fuel, [had] left her sleepless.” The woman said, “It makes me so depressed and so sad that these people care so little about people like me, or people who are disabled...”.
The Public Order Emergency Commission heard the testimony of a legally blind resident in the downtown core who described the hardship she experienced during the occupation. This included difficulty getting around due the constant noise as well as hearing loss as a result of the extremely loud blaring of horns for days on end.
United Way East Ontario and 35 of its social service agencies studied the impacts of the occupation on the vulnerable and marginalized communities. Most notably, the Distress Centre of Ottawa and Region noted that more than half their calls during the 24-hour period were from residents in distress or in crisis. Additionally, and this is very, very sad, 12% of their clients had thoughts of suicide as a result of the events that unfolded.
And yet, Ottawa's residents were as resilient as they had been in the past and will be in the future.
[Translation]
Mr. Chair, I'm now ready to answer the committee's questions.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear and to express the views of city council members and residents of the City of Ottawa.
Nothing compares with what we saw. This was extraordinary. We're very good at welcoming protesters to Ottawa, as you know—mostly to your riding because they're here for Parliament Hill, the Supreme Court and other important buildings along Wellington Street.
At the end of the day, at virtually all of the protests I've seen over the 25 years that I've been in public life in the City of Ottawa, people arrive; they protest; they give speeches, and then they move on.
This was entirely different in terms of volume, the level of anger that you could see from people, the complete lack of respect of many of the individuals who came here and were involved in activities that were just despicable, and the harm they did to people living in Centretown.
Centretown is a vibrant community, as is Lowertown, which is represented by my friend, Mathieu. The Byward Market and Overbrook—Forbes by the baseball stadium were also affected. There were many documented examples of this kind of boorish behaviour—urinating on the cenotaph, dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, stealing food from the Shepherds of Good Hope, putting placards and the mandate on the Terry Fox statue.
I asked members of Parliament and senators, “If this were happening in your community, would you tolerate it under the guise of free speech?” Absolutely not. You can have free speech, but you can't start to destroy a neighbourhood.
It's my position that over the course of the commission, there's been quite a bit of historical revisionism in some of the testimony that's been provided. There has been some contradictory testimony provided at certain committee meetings here by our law enforcement agencies that have been involved, and the changing nature of the threat. This committee's mandate is to determine whether or not the threshold of a national security was in order, and at this point, I'm still unclear about that.
However, what I am clear about, regardless of the legal nature of the invocation of the act, is that there was a practical collapse of policing within the city of Ottawa. The Ottawa Police Service was wholly incapable and inadequate to meet the size and scale of the operation that was presented here.
Councillor Fleury, given that you have had primary contact with your residents about the impact and the nature.... Being a representative of the ward most impacted by it, I want to give you the opportunity to explain if your experience of the protest, and the information that you received from residents, was consistent with the OPS's communications about the convoy and, in particular, with reference to some of these reports that were perhaps framed by Rex Murphy, and some other ludicrous things.
Could you comment about whether, in your experience, it was just some girls and boys rolling into town to have a talk with the .
We talk about takeaways or lessons learned. One thing I've reflected upon about this particular incident is the extreme naïveté demonstrated by so many organizations, from police organizations to government officials to you four gentlemen—specifically Mayor Watson. You all felt that this was going to go away within 48 hours.
This was organized for weeks prior to these truckers and their supporters arriving in the city of Ottawa. They were coming from the west coast, from the east coast and from everywhere in between. Given that their mandate, which was widely shared across all kinds of social media platforms, that they weren't leaving until all federal mandates were removed, how could anyone be so naive to think that in 48 hours, someone who's travelled from Vancouver, British Columbia would just say, “Okay, my point's been made” and then return?
They were there to speak to a government official. That didn't happen. I wanted to throw that out for consideration.
We've heard on a couple of occasions from my colleague Mr. Virani, who took two opportunities to describe the actions of a certain member of Parliament.
I listened very carefully to your responses, Mayor Watson. Clearly, your indignation with respect to that member of Parliament was very evident. You commented that the particular member was giving it “credibility” and that it was “salt to the wound”.
I didn't hear that same indignation when the of this country was the origin of, the genesis for, the anger that many people had about mandates. That's the same Prime Minister who called these people “extremists”, “racist, misogynistic”, those with “unacceptable views”, those who “don't believe in science” and those who take up space.
Were you concerned about the using that language, Mayor Watson?