‘We still… had a big problem’: Ottawa police chief disputes claim talks to end ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest were close to ‘breakthrough’

OTTAWA — The former president of the Ottawa police board says she was not aware of any negotiations that could have ended the so-called “Freedom Convoy” occupation around Parliament Hill last winter, and that the federal government had reason in invoking the Emergencies Law to deal with the crisis.

But others who worked with protest organizers in Ottawa argue that the government acted too quickly in light of talks with the city to remove vehicles blocking residential streets.

The debate follows revelations last week, first reported in The Star, that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security adviser told cabinet ministers there was “potential for a breakthrough” with the protesters. in Ottawa the night before the government announced that it had invoked Emergencies. Law for the first time since the law was enacted in 1988.

According to the office of Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, the adviser was referring to negotiations led primarily by the city of Ottawa, which were unsuccessful and ultimately helped push the government to create special police powers under the law. emergency department to resolve the situation.

the government has justified the move stating that the powers were used as a last resort and that the protests, which included the occupation of Ottawa and border blockades across the country, featured political extremists with the potential for “serious violence” and serious economic impacts.

In an interview with the Star on Thursday, Diane Deans, who was president of the city’s police board at the time, said she was surprised by the reported reference to a possible breakthrough with Ottawa protesters.

Deans said the only conversations he was aware of were “very specific” negotiations between the city and protest organizers to achieve one goal: get protesters’ vehicles out of residential areas and closer to Parliament Hill.

“I never understood that those discussions were about ending the protests,” Deans said, arguing that the movement of vehicles should not have dissuaded the federal government from invoking the Emergencies Law.

“We still, in my opinion, had a big problem developing in Ottawa.”

A spokesman for Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declined interview requests from the Star this week, stating the mayor will not discuss the events until he appears in a public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act this fall.

The Ottawa Police Service also declined to comment Thursday on any negotiations with the convoy protesters.

Keith Wilson, a lawyer who worked with convoy organizers during the protests, told the Star on Thursday that he was involved in side talks between the city, protest leaders and Dean French, Prime Minister Doug Ford’s former chief of staff, who acted as liaison. between the two sides.

Wilson said the only negotiations with the city were about getting trucks and vehicles off the streets with condominiums and apartment blocks, and that protest leaders really supported the idea.

He shared letters dated February 12 between convoy organizer Tamara Lich, who is facing a series of criminal charges in connection with her role in the protests, and Watson, indicating that the city expected more than 400 trucks to be moved during the protests. next three days.

Wilson said protest leaders distributed 800 copies of a memo to truckers parked on residential streets. The memo, which Wilson provided to the Star, said that the convoy leaders planned to “consolidate our protest in the streets in front of Parliament” and that “there was also room for trucks to move to 88,” a freeway exit to one of the three camps. outside the city, where protesters could stay and travel back to the center to participate in demonstrations.

He said the protest leaders also held a “logistics meeting” with city officials about how they would move their trucks.

By February 14, the day the government invoked the Emergencies Act, Wilson said 42 semi-trucks had moved off residential streets: 23 onto the road in front of Parliament and the rest out of town. He said organizers wanted to keep moving but couldn’t without greater cooperation from police, who had erected concrete barricades throughout the city center.

He also downplayed statements by Deans and others that protest organizers were divided on the decision to move the trucks. For example, a Twitter post by Lich on February 13 that was later deleted said that reports of the deal were a “media lie.” But Wilson claimed the post was actually written by another protest organizer with access to Lich’s account, who was unaware of the arrangement to move vehicles.

While the protesters intended to continue pushing their demands to lift federal vaccine mandates, Wilson said they “wanted a de-escalation. They wanted to ease the pressure on residents and others in the city center… The mayor wanted the city back and they agreed.”

Responding to questions from the Star via email on Thursday, French confirmed that he was the “negotiator” between the protesters and the city. He said the government should have waited for the agreement to be fulfilled before invoking the Emergencies Law, saying that 100 vehicles in total, including the 42 trucks Wilson cited, had moved by February 14.

“Had the operation been allowed to continue, we might have seen some dialogue and movement to end the larger demonstration,” French wrote.

“Because the prime minister and his cabinet panicked and rushed in, we will never know how important the mayor’s peaceful settlement could have been. This was a total overreaction and will be a black mark on Canadian history.”

For three weeks beginning in late January, the streets around Parliament Hill were jammed with trucks and other vehicles that had traveled to Ottawa from across Canada. Protesters denounced COVID-19 health measures, spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines and the pandemic, and in some cases called for the ouster of the elected Liberal government.

Local residents received a court order to ban honking, while police reported death threats against public officials and a spate of prank calls clogging the city’s emergency phone lines.

The occupation of the convoy coincided with blockades by like-minded protesters at border crossings in Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta, where the RCMP arrested 13 people and seized a cache of weapons and bulletproof vests as part of an alleged plot to kill police officers.

The federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Law on February 14 mentioned the potential for “serious violence” as well as the economic damage of the protests. He said special powers were needed to formally declare gatherings illegal, compel tow truck drivers to help clear blockades, and freeze the bank accounts of participants receiving money from domestic and foreign donors.

But the decision has drawn criticism, with opposition Conservatives arguing that the use of the Emergencies Law was an overreach. Civil liberties groups have also launched legal challenges to the move in Federal Court, where cabinet documents revealing the national security adviser’s comment about a possible “breakthrough” were made public last week.

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