The Ontario Provincial Police leader said Thursday that the Emergencies Act was mandatory to compensate towing companies that helped in the convoy protest in Ottawa in February, but Commissioner Thomas Carrique does not believe the questionable federal powers were necessary to force heavy cars into service.
“Many of them were looking for reimbursement, which we couldn’t provide without making further arrangements. . . so when the Emergencies Act was invoked, that ability to provide that reimbursement was incredibly helpful,” said Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Thomas Carrique, Public Order Emergency Commission. research.
“Technically, could we have just coerced them?
The factor of forcing the cranes has one of the critical issues facing the commission’s investigation, which is examining whether the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act was justified.
Carrique met with the commission’s lawyers twice this summer before his testimony. Summaries of the interviews were presented as evidence Thursday.
In August, it ruled that the police had failed to use the Emergency Measures Act to force towing companies to provide their services.
“The ability to force crane drivers to supply and compensate them was delegated by the RCMP commissioner to [Commissioner] Carrique, but was not used to force them to supply Array,” a summary of the interviews said.
SEE | ‘Some reluctant’: OPP crane commissioner
On Thursday, a lawyer for the commission asked if it would be fair to say the trucks “were compensated under the Emergency Measures Act, but were not compelled under the Emergency Measures Act. “
“That’s how I would describe it,” Carrique said.
One of the disorders faced by police in the profession was the movement of trucks and other cars that had been hidden in the streets of Ottawa for weeks. At the time, towing companies expressed concern about being attacked by protesters. Ottawa said he won many calls and added death threats.
An Ottawa Police Service superintendent who helped oversee the drawing up of operational plans in the final days of the protest told the investigation Wednesday that officials did not want to rely on powers granted by federal law to secure the cranes.
Superintendent Robert Bernier, who took over as PAHO event commander on Feb. 10, organized a police operation with the OPP and RCMP.
He told the commission that the OPP was able to secure 34 cranes with volunteer drivers around Feb. 13, before the law was invoked, as part of its plan to end the protest.
But a federal attorney dismissed that claim.
During cross-examination Wednesday, Donnaree Nygard, an attorney for the federal government, asked Bernier if he knew the compromise for the 34 trucks had failed.
“I haven’t been informed,” Bernier said.
SEE | Ontario Provincial Police Superintendent Robert Bernier discusses efforts to make cranes transparent to the truck convoy:
Nygard added a Feb. 17 letter showing Carrique cited the Emergency Act in his communications with towing companies. The letter said the Ontario Provincial Police “requires” towing companies to provide their services under the Emergencies Act.
“This is new to me,” Bernier Wednesday.
A Feb. 13 email sent to Carrique and submitted to the commission on Thursday said seven companies with 34 heavy cranes were willing to supply Array, while 57 companies with 269 heavy cranes said they did not or did not respond to the OPP.
The email said the OPP was beginning to turn to U. S. and Quebec corporations for help.
“There was a lot of difficulty identifying how many cranes were available, the ones that would gladly provide those services, the ones they were looking to be forced or compensated,” Carrique said.
“There are fears that they will withdraw at the last minute, which poses a threat to go ahead with the plan. “
Carrique called the repayment factor “critical. “
In a Feb. 22 letter, written after police moved into Ottawa’s empty streets, Carrique told Ontario’s Assistant Attorney General Mario Di Tommaso that the towing industry was “very reluctant” to assist police and sought “an unusually broad and high risk. “”Compensation of the province for losses and damages.
This claim included payment of long-term retaliation. Carrique said it would require the finance minister’s approval and take time.
The letter also said that securing the participation of crane companies would have required separate agreements. Again, Carrique wrote that there was not enough time to do so before the planned police operation.
Carrique saw the letter on cross-examination Thursday.
“You said it was a little semantic problem, but actually, sir, the OPP required towing companies to supply under the auspices of the [Emergency Measures Act], right?” asked Brendan van Niejenhuis, another federal government lawyer. .
“Yes, we had provided this directive in writing and if they had provided those services, we might have forced them to do so. Absolutely,” Carrique replied.
The crane factor is the only point of contention that research has exposed so far.
In March, Carrique told the House of Commons parliamentary committee that officials from his intelligence unit knew the Ottawa protest was a “threat to national security” about a week after heavy trucks arrived in the capital.
But the head of the intelligence unit, the superintendent. Pat Morris told the public inquiry last week that there had never been any apparent direct risk to national security.
“Everyone asks about extremism. We didn’t see much evidence of that,” Morris said.
On Thursday, Carrique said it “has become known as a national security risk. “
But Carrique said in his testimony that he agreed there was no credible risk to national security. He said the word “risk” used to imply that anything could happen and that the scenario required further analysis.
Canada’s spy agency, CSIS, expressed fear over the Ontario Provincial Police’s suggestion that there was a risk to national security, but Carrique said any police leader takes potential risks very seriously.
He said OPP intelligence reports on the protests, called Project Hendon, indicated there was no exit strategy for protest organizers. He said he informed Ottawa police.
Reports say convoy organizers and participants are unlikely to have the ability to control, influence or discipline the “fringe elements” they say may pose the greatest risk to public safety.
The reports also noted that while the Ontario Provincial Police “were not aware of any concrete, specific, or credible risks related to the Freedom Convoy protest” or similar events, “a lone actor or organization of Americans may take the risk with little or nothing. “attention. “
According to his witness’s summary, Carrique believed PAHO’s operational plan would prohibit trucks from entering the parliamentary precinct and use buses and shuttles to allow demonstrators access to the center of the protests.
He says he temporarily learned that wasn’t the case.
“PAHO did not appear to have an evidently communicated and documented operational plan, and it was not being executed in a court order,” his witness’s summary said.
He said he did not think the decision by then-Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly to make public his request for 1,800 additional officers was not helpful.
“He showed the protesters that the SPO was beating and needed help,” Carrique told the commission.
Journalist
Catharine Tunney is a journalist in the Parliament Hill office of CBC, where she covers national security and the RCMP. He previously worked for CBC in Nova Scotia catharine. tunney@cbc. ca.
With from The Canadian Press
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