Texts, emails show what Ottawa police told convoy organizers ahead of protest
CBC
Text messages between one of the convoy protest organizers and an Ottawa police officer show how police told protesters where to park, which one expert calls an agreement gone awry.
Convoy protest organizer Chad Eros filed an affidavit with the Ontario Superior Court as a respondent to the proposed class-action lawsuit responsible for halting the honking downtown. In that affidavit, text messages and emails revealed how organizers communicated with police days before thousands of people and hundreds of vehicles began to paralyze downtown streets.
On Jan. 25, three days before the most eager first convoy protesters arrived with large trucks to block city streets, Ottawa police Const. Isabelle Cyr-Pidcock texted Eros instructing him to send her an itinerary of the protesters.
"I will have a definite plan for you tomorrow morning," read the officer's text to Eros.
The protest organizer responded by saying he was "so happy" police and organizers could work together, and the officer responded with "Absolutely!"
The affidavit does not include all communication between the two. It does include another text on the night of Jan. 25 where Cyr-Pidcock sought itinerary information from Eros.
"Don't want to bug you but if you want us to work with you, I need the info that I requested. When will you send everything?" the officer wrote just ahead of the three-week illegal occupation of Ottawa's downtown core.
Eros responded to say he was working on it but no further texts appear to be exchanged on that date.
The next morning, Cyr-Pidcock tells Eros about the parking lot at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton (RCGT) stadium on Coventry Road, which had been "secured" by police for convoy protesters coming from the east.
"You can start working on a shuttle for them," she wrote. "Almost done planning for the west convoy."
The Coventry Road encampment became a stronghold for protesters and was used to co-ordinate meal and fuel deliveries to participants downtown.
Eros doesn't appear to respond to the officer but she sends another text a few hours later telling him the protesters won't be able to start staging everyone before 8 a.m.
"Any chance you guys can change your opening ceremony later so that we can get everyone settled properly?" she writes.
Eros again doesn't appear to respond, but Cyr-Pidcock tells him in a late afternoon text protesters "are going to be able to park" on Wellington Street and along Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway.
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