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Sloly is the third police officer to say he did not directly call for the act to be invoked
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June 2, 2022 • 2 hours ago • 4 minutes of reading • 124 comments Parliament, Thursday, June 2, 2022 in Ottawa. Photo by Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press
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OTTAWA – Former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly told lawmakers that the Freedom Convoy was an unprecedented challenge, but also said he did not ask the Liberal government to call for an emergency. to clean the city streets.
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“I didn’t make that request. I don’t know anyone else in the Ottawa Police Service.”
Sloly is the third police officer to say he did not directly call for the event, including current Ottawa chief Steve Bell and RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki. Sloly led Ottawa police for most of the convoy’s protest, but resigned shortly after the Emergency Act was introduced.
Invoking the act, giving extraordinary powers to the police, Liberal Cabinet ministers said they had consulted with the police who told them they needed unprecedented authority to end the occupations in Ottawa, as well as several border crossings.
Sloly told a House of Commons committee that he is considering the potential to expand the parliamentary precinct to include some of the streets south of Parliament Hill after Freedom Convoy protesters took some of those same streets.
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ARCHIVE PHOTO: A woman greets a truck driver as vehicles roll through the streets of Centretown during the “Freedom Convoy.” Photo by Ashley Fraser / Postmedia
Sloly said the protests were unprecedented and would have been difficult for anyone to manage.
“I had never experienced it and I have been involved in major planned and unplanned incidents in this country, nationwide and internationally,” he said.
The former chief appealed for appeals to the federal and provincial government, mostly police, but said he also needed tow trucks and other aid.
He said that if he had received 1,800 agents, as he had asked during the crisis, he was confident that the protests could have ended. He said getting all these officers here was a challenge, but the federal and provincial governments were helping.
“The plan that was underway required at least 1,800 police officers. When these officers arrived, I had full confidence in the commanders and tactical officers to implement this plan for a safe and effective resolution.”
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Finally, after the invocation of the emergency act, which froze the bank accounts of the leaders of the convoy, and allowed the government to close access to the area and force to put into service the tow trucks, near 2,000 police officers moved in and cleared the area.
Sloly said there was simply no roadmap to follow for such a large protest, with heavy trucks blocking the route.
“This was an unprecedented national security crisis, for which our institutions were not fully prepared.”
Prior to becoming head of Ottawa, Sloly worked with the Toronto police. Conservative MP Brad Vis asked if additional officials could be incorporated for events such as the G20 in Toronto, why they could not be summoned for the event, instead of invoking the act.
Sloly rejected the comparison and said the events were not the same.
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“I don’t think it’s a worthy comparison to the discussions we need to really prepare for these kinds of events in the future. I would suggest that on January 6 in the United States, Washington DC would be better.
Senator Vernon White, a former Ottawa police chief, said he had long considered Wellington Street to be one of the main responsibilities for security on Parliament Hill.
The street passes directly in front of the Parliament, between the House of Commons and the Prime Minister’s Office. During the convoy, the street was completely closed with large trucks and a large crane was installed a few meters from the prime minister’s office. White said allowing large vehicles to pass through the area is a serious concern.
“As long as vehicles have direct access to this location, we run the risk of large vehicles being used to deliver explosives and, as a result, we are at high risk of a catastrophic event on Wellington Street.”
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White said he hoped there would be other major protests around Parliament Hill and that the government should tighten security at the venue.
“This is the beginning, not the end. I think we will have future events for which we were not prepared, and I think we better try to improve.”
White agreed with Sloly on the unprecedented nature of the protests and said it was difficult to understand the scale of the protests until they reached Ottawa.
Sloly said he believes there should be design changes to the site, including bollards, possibly the creation of a pedestrian mall and the creation of other barriers, but said delivering jurisdiction will not be easy. .
“Changing jurisdiction is the problematic piece, not impossible, but it’s the challenging piece of what you’re trying to address.”
He said it would require a lot of cooperation between governments and clear lines of authority. He said that even changing the jurisdiction of Wellington and Sparks would still require constant coordination between the multiple police agencies that patrol Ottawa.
“You could redraw that limit to 417, you will still have daily challenges with communication, coordination, collaboration, levels of readiness and intelligence gathering, none of these problems go away.”
Twitter: RyanTumilty Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com
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