Despite receiving several early warnings, former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly says, even “in hindsight,” he doesn’t believe the information he was getting before the protest convoy arrived in the city suggested that the protesters would dig in and stay.
“To this day, even with the benefit of hindsight, I have no clear impression nor have I seen any clear conclusion that we would have anything other than what my team told me,” he said during his highly anticipated appearance before the Emergency Law investigation on Friday.
Sloly, who resigned on Feb. 15, has come under intense criticism for his actions during the convoy protest against COVID-19 measures, a protest that blocked Ottawa for more than three weeks last winter. The Public Order Emergencies Commission inquiry is reviewing the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergency Act to end the protest.
The commission has seen reports and heard testimony that police had given advance notice that some protesters were determined to stay in the capital until all vaccine mandates were repealed or a new government installed.
But the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) still planned a weekend demonstration.
Former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly arrives to appear as a witness at the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Sloly told the commission he first learned of a crowd of protesters traveling to Ottawa on Jan. 13, when he received a report about the “Freedom Convoy” from Project Hendon, an intelligence network run by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
Sloly said he remembers sending that report to deputies. An email chain confirming that this claim has not been submitted as evidence.
The OPP continued to send Ottawa police Hendon reports warning of “fringe ideologies” active within the protest movement and noting that the organizers had no exit strategy to end the protest.
LOOK | Sloly says there are “no clear conclusions” that protests differ from intelligence
Sloly says there are “no clear conclusions” that protests differ from intelligence
Former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly says, in retrospect, the information his force gathered didn’t show that last winter’s convoy protests would last longer and be bigger than anticipated .
“One line in a report, unless you’ve read the whole report, could be misleading. One line, unless you’ve read all the reports, could be misleading,” Sloly said.
Sloly has sat for four interviews with commission attorneys since late August. His most recent interview was on October 5. A summary of what he said in those interviews was presented as evidence at the inquest earlier this week.
During one of Sloly’s interviews, commission lawyers showed him a Jan. 26 Hendon Project report that warned elements of the protests could pose a risk.
Sloly responded that these risks could materialize in most major events.
A Jan. 28 OPP intelligence report shared with Sloly says “available information indicates that protesters plan to remain in Ottawa at least” until Feb. 4.
Sloly told the commission’s attorneys that he understood that to mean the protest would take place primarily over a weekend, with a small group remaining afterward.
While briefings noted that supporters were receiving donations of cash, food and water, Sloly said that did not suggest this event would be any different from other major protests.
Sloly also received an email on Jan. 21 from Ottawa police Sgt. Sean Kay who said the purpose of the convoy was to remain in Ottawa until the pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Sloly said that if Kay had such concerns, he would have expected her to report them to her supervisors, who should have made changes to the operational plan.
LOOK | Sloly expected more support as “signals” grew louder that Ottawa protesters were not leaving
Sloly expected more support as “signals” grew louder that Ottawa protesters were not leaving
Former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly says he called for extra officers because of signs that the protesters in the convoy could overwhelm OPS.
“If there are these warning signs, and as we move into the weekend, these warning signs are getting stronger and stronger, shouldn’t OPS have known what was coming?” commission attorney Frank Au asked.
“To answer your question, no,” Sloly said.
“My sense from the briefings I was getting was that this process was in place and working well enough.”
The internal memo to officers said the protesters would “likely” stay.
While OPS was signaling to the city and the public that the protests would last a weekend, a memo was sent to officers on January 24 restricting their discretionary time off to prepare for the convoy’s arrival of Freedom
He stated that although “the event has been scheduled for one day, it is very likely that many participants will not leave the city for an undetermined period of time.”
Asked about the wording of that memo, Sloly “indicated that the language in the excerpt was not intended to be accurate,” the summary says.
Former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly wipes away tears as he becomes emotional while appearing as a witness before the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/ The Canadian Press)
Sloly said he realized just a few hours into the protest’s first Saturday, Jan. 29, that his plans had fizzled out.
“The nine o’clock briefing I got on Saturday morning was still talking about a weekend event,” he told the inquiry.
“By 11 o’clock we had significant encrustation [protest]clearly beginning to occupy and in some cases to fortify elements of Wellington Street, the Parliamentary District and other parts of our city centre.”
His former colleague Insp. Russell Lucas, who served as the incident commander for OPS during the protest, told the commission earlier this week that his team was “drinking from the fire hose.”
Sloly gets excited talking about the agents
“No matter how many convoys there were, that’s how many firefighters were arriving,” Sloly said Friday.
“Add 10 more fire hoses for all the other odds and ends that came up, put three more fire hoses for the minus 35 degrees, four or five more for the level of fatigue that our officers already had in those events, 43 more hoses. for the level of public confidence in the police … and I think it’s a more accurate assessment of how much water we were taking at that time.”
Protesters wave flags as the convoy of trucks makes its way down Parliament Hill in Ottawa on January 29, 2022. (Joe Tunney/CBC)
Sloly said that on February 1, a Canadian Armed Forces officer had told him that the Freedom Convoy “had elements of an insurgency.”
The former chief became emotional when Au asked him how his officers dealt with the situation from the beginning.
After a long layoff to recover, Sloly said he was grateful to his team.
“It was too cold and too hot. But they did their best,” she said, crying.
“They have to understand each other.”
Sloly said the media coverage of the protest and the police response had an “overwhelming” effect on its members.
“By the end of the weekend, it had become a global story that the mainstream media was following and none of it showed, in any accurate way, the hard work of the men and women of the Ottawa Police Service and of the collaborating agencies that were there. with us,” he said.
“None of that until today.”
LOOK | Former Ottawa Police Chief Gets Emotional About Law Enforcement Efforts During Truck Convoy
‘You can feel the tension’: Retired OPP Chief Superintendent Carson Pardy on former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly
Pardy was questioned by the commission’s lawyer about how Sloly dealt with police forces during the convoy. He describes a very tense atmosphere and people sitting with their “heads hanging” during meetings.
Sloly said that before the convoy protest landed, OPS was struggling with low morale and a lack of public trust, particularly within Ottawa’s racialized and marginalized communities.
“OPS was not functioning optimally, was poorly resourced, and its leadership was stretched when the Freedom Convoy arrived,” Sloly’s summary of testimony reads.
Lack of contingency plan criticized
The commission also heard witnesses criticizing the OPS plan leading up to the first weekend and the lack of a plan to deal with protesters if they refuse to leave.
On Thursday, the commission heard from the head of the Ontario Provincial Police, who said he thought the OPS operational plan would ban trucks from the parliamentary grounds and have buses and shuttles to allow protesters access to the center of the city.
Sloly told the commission in interviews that he never received any written or verbal communication from any official suggesting that the OPS plan to allow the Freedom Convoy into downtown Ottawa was wrong.
A line of anti-vaccine mandated protesters stand face-to-face with a line of police officers in downtown Ottawa on Saturday, February 19, 2022. (Michael Charles Cole/CBC)
Last week, OPS deputy chief Trish Ferguson said Ottawa police still did not have a new plan as of Feb. 4, a week after protesters and their vehicles first entered the city, because the force was “putting out fires” and dealing with staffing.
“I think we were a little bit off in terms of our roster, in terms of our ability to take stock of what was going on and then move forward and come up with a plan to get out of it,” he said.
“We lost a while there.”
The relationship with other agencies was strained: OPP
As part of its mission, the commission studies the actions of the police before and after the invocation of the Law of Emergencies.
Commissioner Paul Rouleau has already heard witnesses describe a strained and sometimes distrustful relationship between Sloly and the OPP during the protest.
“Generally the tone, I…