Ontario PM is refusing to appear before the Emergency Response Commission of Inquiry.
• Also read: “Freedom Convoy”: The Ottawa police make their mea culpa
• Also read: “Freedom convoy”: The ex-police chief persuaded a demonstration in a single weekend
The Commission summoned Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford and his Deputy Prime Minister Sylvia Jones today.
The Ford administration has so far said it was not invited by the commissioners, but the commissioners instead state that Doug Ford and his team did not respond to their invitations and refused to cooperate voluntarily, for which they have no choice but to to send him an invitation to appear.
The Ford government immediately indicated that it would challenge the subpoena in court. He argues that this is a police matter and that the police witnesses who testify are best placed to provide the evidence the commission needs.
Evidence documents filed last week showed that Prime Minister Trudeau, who will appear voluntarily in the coming weeks, accused Doug Ford of “evading his responsibilities” in this crisis for “political reasons”.
From the early days of the investigation, Me Paul Champs, the attorney for the Coalition of Ottawa Citizens and Merchants, pointed out that some members of the Ford administration were sympathetic to the protesters. Doug Ford’s own daughter, Krista Ford Haynes, took part in part of the convoy to Milton, Ontario, openly against sanitation measures. She called it an “incredible experience.”
The commission is hearing today from Acting Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell, who replaced Chief Sloly at the height of the crisis in February.
During his questioning, he was presented with a report from the Ottawa Police Department Intelligence Service, which he directed prior to his promotion. This document indicates that the federal government’s refusal to meet with representatives of the “freedom convoy” had the potential to add fuel to the fire.
“The federal government is ignoring the event. Historically, leaders’ refusal to listen to or heed a popular uprising has rendered situations uncontrollable,” said an Ottawa City Police Department intelligence document presented today to the Emergency Response Commission of Inquiry.
The report points out that during the first weekend of the occupation, the only major organization speaking about the event was the Canadian Trucking Alliance and it was not until Monday that the Prime Minister mentioned the demonstration as “oblique”. He then accused Conservatives of fear-mongering by linking vaccination requirements to supply chain disruptions, the document said.
“These conditions create the breeding ground for passionate emotions,” the author warns in bold in the text.
Summarizing the information gathered, the author of the intelligence report warns that “there is likely to be widespread disorganization and confusion.”
André Durocher, retired inspector from the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), wonders if there was a “political intervention” that led the police services to fail to act despite the information received.
Mr Bell defended himself by pointing out that the intelligence data, while suggesting a large crowd determined to stay for a long time, did not suggest the protesters were violent or disrespecting the law.
However, intelligence information available to his teams indicated some of the protesters had access to guns and that guns had been confiscated from participants en route to Ottawa, according to documents filed in evidence today.
In particular, these documents indicate that Quebec police informed their counterparts in Ottawa that on January 29 he had met a man who intended to go to the demonstration with a gun. The gun was confiscated and its owner’s home searched, but no charges were brought. Another gun seizure was noted in Nova Scotia within the eastern convoy en route to Ottawa.
The commission of inquiry must clarify whether it was justified for the federal government to invoke the emergency law to end the crisis.
According to Mr. Bell, the application of this law allowed the police to mobilize the necessary tow trucks to move the trucks blocking the federal capital’s city center. It also allowed participants’ bank accounts to be frozen to force them to abandon camp.