After failing to heed intelligence, Ottawa police were left 'floundering,' Emergencies Act inquiry hears
CBC
One of the top officers at the Ottawa Police Service says the force should have paid closer attention to intelligence that suggested the Freedom Convoy protesters planned to stay past two days — and city police were left "floundering" after the first weekend.
"There was a failure to appreciate," Patricia Ferguson, acting deputy chief of the Ottawa Police Service (OPS), told the Public Order Emergency Commission on Thursday.
The commission is studying whether the federal government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to move the protesters was justified.
One of the questions the public inquiry has been digging into is whether Ottawa police shrugged off signs that the protesters planned to entrench themselves.
On Wednesday, the inquiry heard that the Ontario Provincial Police intelligence bureau had warned that a mass anti-government protest could be headed to Ottawa in early January.
Supt. Pat Morris, who heads the OPP's Provincial Operations Intelligence Bureau, testified that by Jan. 20 — more than a week before the Freedom Convoy protests began — the OPP believed the protest would be "a long-term event."
Evidence presented at the commission also showed that police and city officials had received a warning from the Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association that someone from the Canada United Truckers Convoy had reached out looking to book hotel rooms for at least 30 days.
WATCH | Ottawa police should have 'given more credibility' to information on convoy protest plans
An email entered into evidence Thursday showed that even some within the Ottawa Police had a sense that the convoy headed to Ottawa was unlike other protests.
"The goal of the convoy is to remain in Ottawa until the restrictions are repealed," said one email, dated Jan. 21, from the force's events planning unit.
That email also said the protesters were raising large amounts of money through their GoFundMe page.
But Ferguson said Ottawa police acted under the assumption that the crowds would clear out after the first weekend.
"We weighed the information and the intelligence we had and that was the plan was developed based on what our best assessment of that was," she said.
Commission lawyer Frank Au asked Ferguson what she would have done differently leading up to the first weekend "in hindsight."
This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.
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