I appreciated the tone of this piece. It reminds us that the participants in charge of the police work in Ottawa are humans, c/w all their frailties and character flaws and pressures to make good decisions on the fly.
Good decision making is often accompanied by a measure of good luck. Chief Sloly would have been a genius (not that he would have been credited for it) had the Convoy packed up and left within a few days. Because fate headed in the opposite direction, Sloly wears the goat horns instead.
Louis L’Amour would call Chief Sloly a rank outsider, parachuted into a plum job ahead of two 30 year veterans. Perhaps that is the real tragedy, a well meaning and dedicated police officer who never gained the trust of underlings or his civilian masters. When everyone is mad at you before a crisis strikes, that becomes a problem.
I appreciate Paul providing this much background on Sloly's decency and intelligence. He may have been the wrong person in the wrong place, but he wouldn't have made Chief without some qualities and skills. As a former army officer, with experience of interpreting intelligence operationally, I can't be too critical of him missing the warnings about the convoy intending a long-term occupation. Paul Wells is right, I think, to note the OPS had a *lot* of experience with protests that came and went. He also had the handicap of being an outsider brought in to reform a service that had long suffered from deep problems. Where I think the previous testimony shows criticism to be justified is not using all his resources effectively (liaison teams, bylaw enforcement), his failure to establish a clear chain of command, and his requests for support from other agencies without a a specific plan as to how they'd be used. Paul is just getting to this at the end. I hope there's a part two.
I hope others beside Justin Ling raise the issue of whether the police were afraid that many protesters were concealing weapons, and feared using a heavy hand, only to have shots fired and people really hurt. Maybe them.
Ling has an exclusive - as far as I know - in writing that (illegally) loaded shotguns were found in some trucks. Has anybody else reported that? Imagine walking out into a crowd of people that were hollering "tyranny and treason" a lot, were known to have guns - and your back is always to half of the crowd.
But the real elephant in the room, for long-term police critics, is the unstated fact that police do not engage in *battle*. They cannot afford to ever be in a conflict where the outcome is in doubt, where they even *might* lose. They must always be seen as invincible, that's their protection - the criminal's belief that fighting the police is always going to end up badly for them. So police are friendly and de-escalating unless they can utterly overwhelm the demonstration.
The notion that the police alone "could have" overcome the demonstration must be judged on that basis - could OPS have shut down any possible opposition to being pushed out of the downtown, without any risk, any pitched battles, and definitely without pulling out lethal force? Would the crowd have been intimidated by some pepper spray and tasers, or enraged and willing to charge the line? It' just takes one front line of utter hotheads, willing to take some blows and burning eyes, to get it started.
An official like Sloly is hindered from just saying that, because "The police must always dominate and control every encounter, for their own safety and the arrestee" is not an official policy, and after 2020, not a popular one.
Interesting point. Police often contain large riotous protests that are doing damage or engaging in violence, and are sometimes pushed back, which seems to refute your point. Did I misunderstand?
Perhaps the unique aspect of this protest was its utter peacefulness and the fact that the police wanted to play offense, not defense. Had they provoked an unnecessary violent confrontation with deaths or many serious injuries, even the media wouldn't have been able to cover for them.
And yet none of them was injured, and no property was damaged. No doubt they felt there was a lot of violence - because their immersion in media left them unable to perceive what was actually happening around them.
Much as I respect Canadian mainstream media and some non-mainstream media, the experiences of actual residents of Ottawa trump media reports any day of the week.
whatever the damage/injuries, it was *enraging* for residents; the author covered political rage from the outside for years. The title is "When The Rage Came for Me" ... as he struggled to contain his own.
I think it would be fair to say that many people were injured, medically, emotionally, economically. Loss of sleep, breathing problems, depression, migraines, living in fear of physical attack, fear of general breakdown of the law, loss of jobs, income, businesses,...
Yes, many were upset, even terrified, because they believed the lies of the government and the media. Which of course was what caused the whole problem that the truckers were protesting about in the first place.
I see where this argument could lead, if accepted… In the need to dominate such an illegal assembly, with the potential for escalation of violence, it would therefore be necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act to enable the Armed Forces to be employed for aid to the civil power, should the police enforcement fail. Got it. However it was wisely (and legally)never declared an illegal assembly, and the required police agencies and resources were assembled prior to the invocation of the Act. The army ( that is who it would fall upon…) is not trained in this particular type of aid to the civil power; riot control is not for the untrained or ill-equipped and would only result in chaos should the situation escalate. This would be followed by the inevitable use of lethal force.
The assembled police forces eventually handled the situation correctly; it was the initial failure of the federal politicians that created the situation, the lack of cooperation and coordination of all levels of government that exacerbated it and resulted in the ill-advised and panicked overreach by an authoritarian mindset. The declaration of the Emergencies Act, the closest thing we have to martial law, was an inexcusable suspension of the civil rights of every Canadian on whom the government’s jaundiced eye might fall. “I haven’t done anything, so I have nothing to worry about” is but a justification for moral cowardice and defending a bully.
I’m curious: Did Justin Ling cite police reports or charges laid against those who had illegally loaded shotguns, or the is this based on hear say? Considering the testimony being heard from a steady parade of police officers to date, it’s amazing that fact hasn’t surfaced before now.
Ling's substack column can be found at his "bugeyedandshameless.com" address. Really, all links, and the debate about whether Ling was repeating anonymous lies or truths, is all there. I tried to provide links to the Torstar story here, but you should go to the horse's mouth. Ling is, of course, being pilloried for his claims: "Canada's Ghost Journalist", on YouTube, that fount of all truth. Again, link to that from his own page.
Ottawa Police in March 24 testimony at the Commons public safety committee acknowledged there were neither loaded shotguns nor firearms of any kind found inside Freedom Convoy trucks parked at Parliament. “This is misinformation,” Conservative MP Dane Lloyd (Sturgeon River-Parkland, AB) told the committee.
Ottawa Police in March 24 testimony at the Commons public safety committee acknowledged there were neither loaded shotguns nor firearms of any kind found inside Freedom Convoy trucks parked at Parliament. “This is misinformation,” Conservative MP Dane Lloyd (Sturgeon River-Parkland, AB) told the committee.
Roy, first and as always, thank you for your thoughtful comment.
I confess that I have not read Justin Ling's material and I will take your description of it as entirely accurate.
I think that you raise some good points and they should not be overlooked. They should be considered at length by those who are more knowledgeable than I, possibly countered or further confirmed in some way, but certainly further considered.
One thing that I would say is that it does seem to me, in response to your point, that had the OPS acted sooner to prevent the convoy from driving to and stopping in downtown Ottawa the situation would have been much different. I have seen much commentary that the OPS was surprised, flabbergasted, etc. by the sudden appearance of the convoy in downtown. In turn, I have myself been surprised, flabbergasted, etc. by this assertion given that the cross country progress of the convoy and it's predicted arrival was all across the media for a great deal of time. Had the OPS moved earlier, then your astute comment might not have been at all applicable.
I think it is human nature to engage in a degree of revisionist history. Fwiw my recollection is also that anyone who was even paying half a mind to what was happening could see—ahead of time—that this was not going to be an ordinary protest. But that being said, I have yet to hear anyone articulate exactly what OPS could/should have done differently. Assuming they had enough staff (far from a given), they might have been able to block access from the Queensway/417 as well as close all the bridges from Québec, and block the Aviation Parkway and the Sir John A MacDonald parkway and about 20 other access points into downtown Ottawa, and maybe the truckers would have turned around and gone home—as if—or they would have « visited » other parts of Ottawa. At which point moving police to those other parts of Ottawa would have unblocked the downtown area. Would that have been more « successful »? I admit when this was all happening I thought the OPS had buggered-up big time but now I’m beginning to think that they were doomed from the get-go.
Simon, I follow your point and I agree with it to an extent. One always has to consider the "you just had to be there" perspective.
Okay, that is the point to which I agree. However. I have been reading that in the OPS planning [which planning has been criticized extensively, of course] it was planned by the OPS that the convoy would park in a different location with the convoyers being bussed to Parliament Hill. The problem was that the convoyers arrived "too quickly" I seem to recall.
That very much suggests to me that the OPS simply didn't believe the intelligence reporting - clearly virtually everyone except Peter Sloly seems to agree with that - and simply wasn't sufficiently prepared for the eventuality - the actuality, really - that people would arrive early. Put another way, the OPS was shocked that folks from Quebec also were unhappy and would arrive early in an attempt to join the western convoyers.
So, I repeat my thought that if the OPS had been ready and gotten things organized before hand then the WTF moments might not have occurred. That suggests to me that the "distress" of the citizens of Ottawa is the result of the missteps of the OPS.
Please note that I said that it "suggests to me" because it is quite possible / likely that others may see the same series of events and non-events differently
I haven't had the time to watch all of the hearings, although I did watch a fair bit this week. I heard PS's comment that they arrived "too quickly" although I also understood him to say that there had been some sort of "agreement" that at least one group would go to Coventry Road and then somehow be bused into the DT but that another group arrived first and went straight to Wellington, so everyone followed suit. There are three major routes into the Ottawa area: Highway 17 which becomes 417 from the northwest, Highway 416, which joins 417, from the southwest and Highway 417 from the east. Yes there are the bridges across the Ottawa River but aside from the Gatineau area nobody would use them to come to Ottawa from any significant distance. So, in theory block 417 in both directions (or at least close exits from it into the downtown area) and block 416 from the south and Ottawa is "safe", except that a) where would all the traffic (not just the trucks) on those roads go? and b) there are other ways to get into Ottawa--not as convenient as the 4-lane highways, but they still exist. Also, if the exits off the Queensway/417 into the DT area had been blocked, what is to say that the truckers wold not have simply parked their rigs on the 417--they wouldn't have been in neighbourhoods, but blocking the Queensway in both directions would not have been a "good" outcome. To actually prevent Ottawa from being "invaded", you'd have to block highway 17 at the Ontario/Manitoba border; highway 417 would have to be blocked at the Québec/Ontario border *as well as* highway 401, and then you'd still have to figure out how to stop vehicles arriving from southwestern Ontario (yes the 416 could be blocked at highway 401 and highway 7 blocked at Carleton Place, but there are several other ways to get from highway 401 north to Ottawa). OPS couldn't have done any of this; they would have had to have had the OPP out in force several days before the trucks arrived in Ottawa. Much as at the time I thought OPS had screwed up, I'm increasingly thinking that there really wasn't anything they (at least they acting alone) could have done.
The legal advice to Sloly was that OPS did not have the legal right to shut down the access from regional highways; only the OPP had this legal power. Apart from that important fact, can you imagine the screaming from all sides at a police agency denying Canadians their legal right to protest government policies? I'm sure most people envisioned hundreds of noisy protestors, a common experience in Ottawa, but not hundreds of huge honking trucks blocking the streets for weeks.
There has been a fair bit of commentary lately about how COVID has showed up the fragility of our just-in-time/lean supply chains. I wonder whether the convoy has also shown up the fragility of our « surge »
capacity for out-of-the-ordinary events as well. We cannot and do not want to afford to have hundreds of police officers sitting around « just in case » something out of the ordinary happens. Maybe we just have to accept that the unexpected will happen and focus on ensuring that we then have the flexibility (with or without the Emergencies Act) to respond quickly (much more quickly than this time) when things do hit the fan.
A good point. This seems to be what happens with fighting forest fires when firefighters and equipment from various regions and provinces, even US states, come together in an organised manner to fight the common enemy with shared resources. Evidently there are well thought out plans in place before the need arises. Recent storm events show how this happens with other emergency services being ready and willing to work together: hydro crews, municipal, provincial and federal teams all contributing their skills, staff and equipment. It seems to have taken place in Ottawa but in a much less organised manner with a lack of organization at the top levels, somewhat like the G20 fiasco in Toronto a few years ago. Perhaps the nature of police forces makes good co-operation more difficult.
Good example of things that just seem to "fall into place". While there do seem to have been a few hiccoughs lately with electrical services not immediately falling into place, that is another example of almost immediate and automatic collaboration. It is clear that police services do regularly cooperate, but it would be helpful if the legal framework allowed for this to happen more seamlessly and it may be that there is an "independence" aspect to all this.
It should be no surprise that authorities were unable to understand and predict the behaviour of the convoy participants: given the situation, it was nearly inevitable.
By imposing unjustifiable (I won’t bore with a repetition of the proof, well-established before mandates were imposed, that the covid vaccines carried significant risk of harm and did not prevent transmission) mandates, governments across the country turned 15% of the population into permanent (“until covid is over”) second class citizens.
We had been a cross section of Canadians, from poor to wealthy, from all different provinces and backgrounds. Now, with the stroke of a pen, we were fired from our jobs, barred from society, denied hospital visits for our loved ones, and even some medical treatment. Our children were kicked out of sports, many schools, colleges and universities. We were barred from travel and even, effectively, from leaving the county. We were told we were dirty and diseased. We were reviled by political, social, and even religious leaders, and many of our friends and family.
This is the moment the journalists of Canada failed in their duty. Rather than denouncing, or even honestly describing, this barbarity, they stuck a happy face on it.
At that moment Canada split. The majority continued to believe what the media told them, that there was no great injustice being done, and were thereby rendered mentally incapable of grasping the scale of the convoy and the resolution of its members and supporters. That the convoy raised more money, faster, than any cause in Canadian history - three separate times - was a fact media believers simply could not engage with.
The other group, who knew the media was lying, understood what was happening, and knew that the convoy was big, and would not give up easily. But those people also knew the scale of the injustice being perpetrated upon us, and supported the convoy’s goals, if not in every case its methods.
The commission is revealing this split, but cannot heal it. While much of the discrimination has been relaxed, much is still going on - and still supported by many. The only way to reconcile Canadians is with truth - the truth that the mandates were massively harmful and never justified, even if many well meaning Canadians mistakenly supported them. This truth must come from a source that people who believe the media trust - the media. It is time for journalists to do their duty - tell the truth. If they had told the truth before the convoy, it might never have happened. If they had told the truth during the convoy, the pressure on Trudeau to drop the mandates would have been irresistible.
In terms of dealing with the facts of the convoy and how it came about, I firmly believe that it matters not whether one or does not believe that the Covid mandates were "correct;" what matters is that many, many people felt as do / did you and that is what provided the impetus for the convoy. In turn, that is why it was so clear to many people [but not to the "correct" thinkers, obviously!] that the convoyers were not going to show up, get their pictures on television and leave. In other words, without some appreciation of the "why" there is no appreciation of the true reality of what became WTF.
Mark Ch, Thx for your POV. I'm surprised more people haven't replied to you. Whether a person supported the convoy or not, I think your summary has a lot of value. We certainly need journalists to give us more detail and a more balanced reporting. Luckily we have at least a few of them like Paul.
I thought Sloly was brought in to “reform” the OPS by the Police Board & the OPS rank & file used the Trucker Protest as an opportunity to “harpoon” him! Clearly everyone saw the protest as an opportunity with politics being played by everyone!
I watched the full day's hearings and must say, that you seem to be the first person who heard what I heard from Sloly's testimony on Friday. I haven't drawn my conclusions yet and look forward to seeing/hearing yours. But I have a gut feeling. We'll see how it plays out on Monday.
An excellent read, Paul. Thanks, I liked him as well.
Near the end of the day's questioning former Chief Sloly was asked if he had any reflections, maybe anything he would do differently, he touched on two facts. Firstly, the importance of sleep for our physical, emotional and psychological wellness. Sleep, sometimes taken for granted, but so crucial. Secondly, we are merely imperfect humans, we are not super beings, yet the Ottawa Police Services he felt was presented with a super difficult situation.
I supported the right of the Freedom Convoy to protest, but I also respect the right of the residents to quiet enjoyment of their community. We live in a democratic country where different views can be voiced, and protests are permitted. Unfortunately, for a capital city Ottawa has little physical space in which massive protests can take place, particularly during the winter months.
Retired US Lt. General Mark Hertling talks about the importance of sleep for commanders here: https://youtu.be/fZ5-xCMIMQs?t=1634 (the podcast covers sleep & fatigue starting around 27:15) - apparently senior decision making degrades catastrophically after 2 days without sleep.
He says soldiers on the ground can go about 4 days without sleep, but leadership should never go more than 2.5 days. Interesting anecdote: he asked an Iraq War commanding general what he did during the initial charge where 150,000+ American troops were driving into Iraq from Saudi Arabia. The general answered that he took a nap.
I also thought his testimony showed he was a man of character. He displays the new breed of police leadership but his values are old school homour and loyalty. Seems like OPS chewed him up and spit him out. I suspect his leadership team and rank and file likely saw him as an outsider and "woke". He was not there long enough to be seen as an one of them and so when they were under fire he was the one unprotected.. Still just a Toronto cop. He relied on them to do their operational roles and keep him updated like he was used to, (things like read intelligence reports )but they didn't.He couldn't trust their work but was then seen as micromanaging when he checked up. He became irritable and had n o pool of goodwill to draw on to view him as just overtired. Disloyal underlings quickly reported this to the board this behind his back. Must have been a very lonely time no wonder he couldn't sleep. I wonder if his leadership team trash talked him to OPP, RCMP, prior and thatnis why their leaders questioned everything down to the minutiae. The rumour mill in LEO circles is efficient. He was brought in to clean up the force. Apparently he lead a corruption investigation since he arrived.The ostracism following investigating your own is well documented. It can lead to having no back up when constable down and certainly we see all the knives out .Unfortunately for his own reputation his loyalty to the blue stopped him from outlining and criticizing their behaviour His code meant he could not defend himself. OPS did not deserve his loyalty. They sabotaged him and this constant second guessing contributed to him making mistakes. He noted himself he situation was beyond his experience ,like it would be for many, but having no team and back up doomed him.
I liked him too. All the cops who have appeared to date have seemed like decent, well-meaning people. Too bad they couldn’t have worked together better. This situation reminds me of SARS and the Paul Bernardo case. All the information was available, too many silos and a lack of trust among too many jurisdictions. BTW the lessons of SARS are why the Public Health Agency of Canada was formed, to try to bring together all these different strands of intel to support better decision-making. Is it time for such a thing in the policing world?
skimmed! One area I find scary was no one read the intelligence reports seriously. Yikes. It seems there was plenty of evidence that this was no regular type protest etc. otherwise I’m with Daniel. One other thought was ,what was his mandate or assumed priorities when hired. Often a leader is picked to fix one set of problems, wakes up up to a whole new set! Furthermore he makes no reference to a mentor or someone whose seen it all! Seemed very isolated. Finally I had no sense any of them had a critical assessment of the earlier report on the tragedy at the cenotaph,storm-in of Parliament by the lone gunman. Plenty of acknowledged risk in our authority structure re-policing etc for all to see. Thanks for the excellent coverage.
I was surprised and impressed with the clarity and emotion in Mr. Sloly's responses because of the media castigation of him over the past year. A number of issues caught my attention but which appear to have been ignored by most commentators. The former chief described the Convoy as being not one but a multitude of convoys each with none or many self-appointed leaders, making negotiations difficult. The OPP had negotiated with some or all of the convoy leaders and reached agreements with them as to their access to city streets The convoys ignored these agreements on reaching the city, again negating any meaningful negotiations. The legal advice to the OPS was that it could not legally deny the truckers access to the city from the regional highways. Keeping in mind the fact that the convoy was made up of a tiny percentage of the population who had refused to follow health department orders, municipal government laws, provincial laws and federal laws because they believe that they have the right to pick and choose which laws they should follow in a democratic country. While people died in their tens of thousands, these convoys raised the contempt of millions of people who believed in the making sacrifices for the public good. An impossible situation for police forces to cope with while also lacking a clear command structure and the failure of leadership from many political leaders.
I understand that Chief Sloly used his best judgement, and decided that the protestors would be in town for only a few days and would depart. He planned accordingly. What I do not understand is why he did not draw up a contingency plan, just in case he was wrong and a massive number of protestors decided to stay indefinitely. Was he so confident in his own judgement that he could not admit the possibility of being wrong?
This piece reminded me that there's a river running through Ottawa. I'd love to hear from someone north of that river. We've heard from a lot of cops, but seeing as we learned this week it's never too late to compel new witnesses, id love to know what Gatineau police thought of the convoy. They dealt with the Farfadaas, and seemed to succeed in avoiding a second Coventry Road situation. The second and third weekends, they seemed to show some attempt at helping by closing lanes on the Mac-Cartier bridge, which just seemed to snarl traffic but didn't stop the flow of F-150s with Fck Trudeau drapeaus. The second Saturday i got stuck in Hull and walked back across Alexandra with my kids, among a constant flow of folks in both directions shouting about libâaarté. (Seriously i wish everyone who is proud of this "Western" movement would understand how many of the trucks had 819 numbers on them) Really, this isn't trolling, i just do wonder what police on the other side thought, what they were told, what they were prepared to do to help, etc. Maybe after Counsellor Fleury, the Commission couldn't handle another Francophone... Oh darn, now i am trolling after all...
819 is the area code for Gatineau and the surrounding areas of Quebec. 613 is the area code for Ottawa and eastern Ontario. Commercial trucks usually carry advertisements, including the telephone numbers of the businesses that they serve.
Comment board is open again. Try to be nice to one another.
I appreciated the tone of this piece. It reminds us that the participants in charge of the police work in Ottawa are humans, c/w all their frailties and character flaws and pressures to make good decisions on the fly.
Good decision making is often accompanied by a measure of good luck. Chief Sloly would have been a genius (not that he would have been credited for it) had the Convoy packed up and left within a few days. Because fate headed in the opposite direction, Sloly wears the goat horns instead.
Louis L’Amour would call Chief Sloly a rank outsider, parachuted into a plum job ahead of two 30 year veterans. Perhaps that is the real tragedy, a well meaning and dedicated police officer who never gained the trust of underlings or his civilian masters. When everyone is mad at you before a crisis strikes, that becomes a problem.
Powerful and thoughtful. Thanks for portraying Mr. Sloly as a human being and a good person. We are all to quick to judge, me included.
I appreciate Paul providing this much background on Sloly's decency and intelligence. He may have been the wrong person in the wrong place, but he wouldn't have made Chief without some qualities and skills. As a former army officer, with experience of interpreting intelligence operationally, I can't be too critical of him missing the warnings about the convoy intending a long-term occupation. Paul Wells is right, I think, to note the OPS had a *lot* of experience with protests that came and went. He also had the handicap of being an outsider brought in to reform a service that had long suffered from deep problems. Where I think the previous testimony shows criticism to be justified is not using all his resources effectively (liaison teams, bylaw enforcement), his failure to establish a clear chain of command, and his requests for support from other agencies without a a specific plan as to how they'd be used. Paul is just getting to this at the end. I hope there's a part two.
I hope others beside Justin Ling raise the issue of whether the police were afraid that many protesters were concealing weapons, and feared using a heavy hand, only to have shots fired and people really hurt. Maybe them.
Ling has an exclusive - as far as I know - in writing that (illegally) loaded shotguns were found in some trucks. Has anybody else reported that? Imagine walking out into a crowd of people that were hollering "tyranny and treason" a lot, were known to have guns - and your back is always to half of the crowd.
But the real elephant in the room, for long-term police critics, is the unstated fact that police do not engage in *battle*. They cannot afford to ever be in a conflict where the outcome is in doubt, where they even *might* lose. They must always be seen as invincible, that's their protection - the criminal's belief that fighting the police is always going to end up badly for them. So police are friendly and de-escalating unless they can utterly overwhelm the demonstration.
The notion that the police alone "could have" overcome the demonstration must be judged on that basis - could OPS have shut down any possible opposition to being pushed out of the downtown, without any risk, any pitched battles, and definitely without pulling out lethal force? Would the crowd have been intimidated by some pepper spray and tasers, or enraged and willing to charge the line? It' just takes one front line of utter hotheads, willing to take some blows and burning eyes, to get it started.
An official like Sloly is hindered from just saying that, because "The police must always dominate and control every encounter, for their own safety and the arrestee" is not an official policy, and after 2020, not a popular one.
Interesting point. Police often contain large riotous protests that are doing damage or engaging in violence, and are sometimes pushed back, which seems to refute your point. Did I misunderstand?
Perhaps the unique aspect of this protest was its utter peacefulness and the fact that the police wanted to play offense, not defense. Had they provoked an unnecessary violent confrontation with deaths or many serious injuries, even the media wouldn't have been able to cover for them.
I really don’t think the residents of downtown Ottawa would agree that this protest was characterized by « utter peacefulness ».
And yet none of them was injured, and no property was damaged. No doubt they felt there was a lot of violence - because their immersion in media left them unable to perceive what was actually happening around them.
Much as I respect Canadian mainstream media and some non-mainstream media, the experiences of actual residents of Ottawa trump media reports any day of the week.
I did not find any better coverage of how it was for residents in downtown Ottawa than in the American magazine, The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/canada-anti-vaccine-trucker-protests/622060/
whatever the damage/injuries, it was *enraging* for residents; the author covered political rage from the outside for years. The title is "When The Rage Came for Me" ... as he struggled to contain his own.
I think it would be fair to say that many people were injured, medically, emotionally, economically. Loss of sleep, breathing problems, depression, migraines, living in fear of physical attack, fear of general breakdown of the law, loss of jobs, income, businesses,...
Yes, many were upset, even terrified, because they believed the lies of the government and the media. Which of course was what caused the whole problem that the truckers were protesting about in the first place.
I suspect that when things happen outside your door you don’t actually need to see how the media describes it in order to know what you experienced.
I see where this argument could lead, if accepted… In the need to dominate such an illegal assembly, with the potential for escalation of violence, it would therefore be necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act to enable the Armed Forces to be employed for aid to the civil power, should the police enforcement fail. Got it. However it was wisely (and legally)never declared an illegal assembly, and the required police agencies and resources were assembled prior to the invocation of the Act. The army ( that is who it would fall upon…) is not trained in this particular type of aid to the civil power; riot control is not for the untrained or ill-equipped and would only result in chaos should the situation escalate. This would be followed by the inevitable use of lethal force.
The assembled police forces eventually handled the situation correctly; it was the initial failure of the federal politicians that created the situation, the lack of cooperation and coordination of all levels of government that exacerbated it and resulted in the ill-advised and panicked overreach by an authoritarian mindset. The declaration of the Emergencies Act, the closest thing we have to martial law, was an inexcusable suspension of the civil rights of every Canadian on whom the government’s jaundiced eye might fall. “I haven’t done anything, so I have nothing to worry about” is but a justification for moral cowardice and defending a bully.
I’m curious: Did Justin Ling cite police reports or charges laid against those who had illegally loaded shotguns, or the is this based on hear say? Considering the testimony being heard from a steady parade of police officers to date, it’s amazing that fact hasn’t surfaced before now.
Ling's substack column can be found at his "bugeyedandshameless.com" address. Really, all links, and the debate about whether Ling was repeating anonymous lies or truths, is all there. I tried to provide links to the Torstar story here, but you should go to the horse's mouth. Ling is, of course, being pilloried for his claims: "Canada's Ghost Journalist", on YouTube, that fount of all truth. Again, link to that from his own page.
Ottawa Police in March 24 testimony at the Commons public safety committee acknowledged there were neither loaded shotguns nor firearms of any kind found inside Freedom Convoy trucks parked at Parliament. “This is misinformation,” Conservative MP Dane Lloyd (Sturgeon River-Parkland, AB) told the committee.
Hi Roy. Thanks for the clarifications and links.
If the claims are verifiable, it’s evidence that needs an airing at the Inquiry.
Ottawa Police in March 24 testimony at the Commons public safety committee acknowledged there were neither loaded shotguns nor firearms of any kind found inside Freedom Convoy trucks parked at Parliament. “This is misinformation,” Conservative MP Dane Lloyd (Sturgeon River-Parkland, AB) told the committee.
Roy, first and as always, thank you for your thoughtful comment.
I confess that I have not read Justin Ling's material and I will take your description of it as entirely accurate.
I think that you raise some good points and they should not be overlooked. They should be considered at length by those who are more knowledgeable than I, possibly countered or further confirmed in some way, but certainly further considered.
One thing that I would say is that it does seem to me, in response to your point, that had the OPS acted sooner to prevent the convoy from driving to and stopping in downtown Ottawa the situation would have been much different. I have seen much commentary that the OPS was surprised, flabbergasted, etc. by the sudden appearance of the convoy in downtown. In turn, I have myself been surprised, flabbergasted, etc. by this assertion given that the cross country progress of the convoy and it's predicted arrival was all across the media for a great deal of time. Had the OPS moved earlier, then your astute comment might not have been at all applicable.
I think it is human nature to engage in a degree of revisionist history. Fwiw my recollection is also that anyone who was even paying half a mind to what was happening could see—ahead of time—that this was not going to be an ordinary protest. But that being said, I have yet to hear anyone articulate exactly what OPS could/should have done differently. Assuming they had enough staff (far from a given), they might have been able to block access from the Queensway/417 as well as close all the bridges from Québec, and block the Aviation Parkway and the Sir John A MacDonald parkway and about 20 other access points into downtown Ottawa, and maybe the truckers would have turned around and gone home—as if—or they would have « visited » other parts of Ottawa. At which point moving police to those other parts of Ottawa would have unblocked the downtown area. Would that have been more « successful »? I admit when this was all happening I thought the OPS had buggered-up big time but now I’m beginning to think that they were doomed from the get-go.
Simon, I follow your point and I agree with it to an extent. One always has to consider the "you just had to be there" perspective.
Okay, that is the point to which I agree. However. I have been reading that in the OPS planning [which planning has been criticized extensively, of course] it was planned by the OPS that the convoy would park in a different location with the convoyers being bussed to Parliament Hill. The problem was that the convoyers arrived "too quickly" I seem to recall.
That very much suggests to me that the OPS simply didn't believe the intelligence reporting - clearly virtually everyone except Peter Sloly seems to agree with that - and simply wasn't sufficiently prepared for the eventuality - the actuality, really - that people would arrive early. Put another way, the OPS was shocked that folks from Quebec also were unhappy and would arrive early in an attempt to join the western convoyers.
So, I repeat my thought that if the OPS had been ready and gotten things organized before hand then the WTF moments might not have occurred. That suggests to me that the "distress" of the citizens of Ottawa is the result of the missteps of the OPS.
Please note that I said that it "suggests to me" because it is quite possible / likely that others may see the same series of events and non-events differently
I haven't had the time to watch all of the hearings, although I did watch a fair bit this week. I heard PS's comment that they arrived "too quickly" although I also understood him to say that there had been some sort of "agreement" that at least one group would go to Coventry Road and then somehow be bused into the DT but that another group arrived first and went straight to Wellington, so everyone followed suit. There are three major routes into the Ottawa area: Highway 17 which becomes 417 from the northwest, Highway 416, which joins 417, from the southwest and Highway 417 from the east. Yes there are the bridges across the Ottawa River but aside from the Gatineau area nobody would use them to come to Ottawa from any significant distance. So, in theory block 417 in both directions (or at least close exits from it into the downtown area) and block 416 from the south and Ottawa is "safe", except that a) where would all the traffic (not just the trucks) on those roads go? and b) there are other ways to get into Ottawa--not as convenient as the 4-lane highways, but they still exist. Also, if the exits off the Queensway/417 into the DT area had been blocked, what is to say that the truckers wold not have simply parked their rigs on the 417--they wouldn't have been in neighbourhoods, but blocking the Queensway in both directions would not have been a "good" outcome. To actually prevent Ottawa from being "invaded", you'd have to block highway 17 at the Ontario/Manitoba border; highway 417 would have to be blocked at the Québec/Ontario border *as well as* highway 401, and then you'd still have to figure out how to stop vehicles arriving from southwestern Ontario (yes the 416 could be blocked at highway 401 and highway 7 blocked at Carleton Place, but there are several other ways to get from highway 401 north to Ottawa). OPS couldn't have done any of this; they would have had to have had the OPP out in force several days before the trucks arrived in Ottawa. Much as at the time I thought OPS had screwed up, I'm increasingly thinking that there really wasn't anything they (at least they acting alone) could have done.
The legal advice to Sloly was that OPS did not have the legal right to shut down the access from regional highways; only the OPP had this legal power. Apart from that important fact, can you imagine the screaming from all sides at a police agency denying Canadians their legal right to protest government policies? I'm sure most people envisioned hundreds of noisy protestors, a common experience in Ottawa, but not hundreds of huge honking trucks blocking the streets for weeks.
There has been a fair bit of commentary lately about how COVID has showed up the fragility of our just-in-time/lean supply chains. I wonder whether the convoy has also shown up the fragility of our « surge »
capacity for out-of-the-ordinary events as well. We cannot and do not want to afford to have hundreds of police officers sitting around « just in case » something out of the ordinary happens. Maybe we just have to accept that the unexpected will happen and focus on ensuring that we then have the flexibility (with or without the Emergencies Act) to respond quickly (much more quickly than this time) when things do hit the fan.
A good point. This seems to be what happens with fighting forest fires when firefighters and equipment from various regions and provinces, even US states, come together in an organised manner to fight the common enemy with shared resources. Evidently there are well thought out plans in place before the need arises. Recent storm events show how this happens with other emergency services being ready and willing to work together: hydro crews, municipal, provincial and federal teams all contributing their skills, staff and equipment. It seems to have taken place in Ottawa but in a much less organised manner with a lack of organization at the top levels, somewhat like the G20 fiasco in Toronto a few years ago. Perhaps the nature of police forces makes good co-operation more difficult.
Good example of things that just seem to "fall into place". While there do seem to have been a few hiccoughs lately with electrical services not immediately falling into place, that is another example of almost immediate and automatic collaboration. It is clear that police services do regularly cooperate, but it would be helpful if the legal framework allowed for this to happen more seamlessly and it may be that there is an "independence" aspect to all this.
It should be no surprise that authorities were unable to understand and predict the behaviour of the convoy participants: given the situation, it was nearly inevitable.
By imposing unjustifiable (I won’t bore with a repetition of the proof, well-established before mandates were imposed, that the covid vaccines carried significant risk of harm and did not prevent transmission) mandates, governments across the country turned 15% of the population into permanent (“until covid is over”) second class citizens.
We had been a cross section of Canadians, from poor to wealthy, from all different provinces and backgrounds. Now, with the stroke of a pen, we were fired from our jobs, barred from society, denied hospital visits for our loved ones, and even some medical treatment. Our children were kicked out of sports, many schools, colleges and universities. We were barred from travel and even, effectively, from leaving the county. We were told we were dirty and diseased. We were reviled by political, social, and even religious leaders, and many of our friends and family.
This is the moment the journalists of Canada failed in their duty. Rather than denouncing, or even honestly describing, this barbarity, they stuck a happy face on it.
At that moment Canada split. The majority continued to believe what the media told them, that there was no great injustice being done, and were thereby rendered mentally incapable of grasping the scale of the convoy and the resolution of its members and supporters. That the convoy raised more money, faster, than any cause in Canadian history - three separate times - was a fact media believers simply could not engage with.
The other group, who knew the media was lying, understood what was happening, and knew that the convoy was big, and would not give up easily. But those people also knew the scale of the injustice being perpetrated upon us, and supported the convoy’s goals, if not in every case its methods.
The commission is revealing this split, but cannot heal it. While much of the discrimination has been relaxed, much is still going on - and still supported by many. The only way to reconcile Canadians is with truth - the truth that the mandates were massively harmful and never justified, even if many well meaning Canadians mistakenly supported them. This truth must come from a source that people who believe the media trust - the media. It is time for journalists to do their duty - tell the truth. If they had told the truth before the convoy, it might never have happened. If they had told the truth during the convoy, the pressure on Trudeau to drop the mandates would have been irresistible.
Mark, I commend you for your comment.
In terms of dealing with the facts of the convoy and how it came about, I firmly believe that it matters not whether one or does not believe that the Covid mandates were "correct;" what matters is that many, many people felt as do / did you and that is what provided the impetus for the convoy. In turn, that is why it was so clear to many people [but not to the "correct" thinkers, obviously!] that the convoyers were not going to show up, get their pictures on television and leave. In other words, without some appreciation of the "why" there is no appreciation of the true reality of what became WTF.
Mark Ch, Thx for your POV. I'm surprised more people haven't replied to you. Whether a person supported the convoy or not, I think your summary has a lot of value. We certainly need journalists to give us more detail and a more balanced reporting. Luckily we have at least a few of them like Paul.
Great piece. You have a way of humanizing all of the characters involved. Finally, someone providing us with neutral and critical reporting!
I thought Sloly was brought in to “reform” the OPS by the Police Board & the OPS rank & file used the Trucker Protest as an opportunity to “harpoon” him! Clearly everyone saw the protest as an opportunity with politics being played by everyone!
I watched the full day's hearings and must say, that you seem to be the first person who heard what I heard from Sloly's testimony on Friday. I haven't drawn my conclusions yet and look forward to seeing/hearing yours. But I have a gut feeling. We'll see how it plays out on Monday.
An excellent read, Paul. Thanks, I liked him as well.
Near the end of the day's questioning former Chief Sloly was asked if he had any reflections, maybe anything he would do differently, he touched on two facts. Firstly, the importance of sleep for our physical, emotional and psychological wellness. Sleep, sometimes taken for granted, but so crucial. Secondly, we are merely imperfect humans, we are not super beings, yet the Ottawa Police Services he felt was presented with a super difficult situation.
I supported the right of the Freedom Convoy to protest, but I also respect the right of the residents to quiet enjoyment of their community. We live in a democratic country where different views can be voiced, and protests are permitted. Unfortunately, for a capital city Ottawa has little physical space in which massive protests can take place, particularly during the winter months.
Monday should be interesting.
Retired US Lt. General Mark Hertling talks about the importance of sleep for commanders here: https://youtu.be/fZ5-xCMIMQs?t=1634 (the podcast covers sleep & fatigue starting around 27:15) - apparently senior decision making degrades catastrophically after 2 days without sleep.
He says soldiers on the ground can go about 4 days without sleep, but leadership should never go more than 2.5 days. Interesting anecdote: he asked an Iraq War commanding general what he did during the initial charge where 150,000+ American troops were driving into Iraq from Saudi Arabia. The general answered that he took a nap.
I also thought his testimony showed he was a man of character. He displays the new breed of police leadership but his values are old school homour and loyalty. Seems like OPS chewed him up and spit him out. I suspect his leadership team and rank and file likely saw him as an outsider and "woke". He was not there long enough to be seen as an one of them and so when they were under fire he was the one unprotected.. Still just a Toronto cop. He relied on them to do their operational roles and keep him updated like he was used to, (things like read intelligence reports )but they didn't.He couldn't trust their work but was then seen as micromanaging when he checked up. He became irritable and had n o pool of goodwill to draw on to view him as just overtired. Disloyal underlings quickly reported this to the board this behind his back. Must have been a very lonely time no wonder he couldn't sleep. I wonder if his leadership team trash talked him to OPP, RCMP, prior and thatnis why their leaders questioned everything down to the minutiae. The rumour mill in LEO circles is efficient. He was brought in to clean up the force. Apparently he lead a corruption investigation since he arrived.The ostracism following investigating your own is well documented. It can lead to having no back up when constable down and certainly we see all the knives out .Unfortunately for his own reputation his loyalty to the blue stopped him from outlining and criticizing their behaviour His code meant he could not defend himself. OPS did not deserve his loyalty. They sabotaged him and this constant second guessing contributed to him making mistakes. He noted himself he situation was beyond his experience ,like it would be for many, but having no team and back up doomed him.
I liked him too. All the cops who have appeared to date have seemed like decent, well-meaning people. Too bad they couldn’t have worked together better. This situation reminds me of SARS and the Paul Bernardo case. All the information was available, too many silos and a lack of trust among too many jurisdictions. BTW the lessons of SARS are why the Public Health Agency of Canada was formed, to try to bring together all these different strands of intel to support better decision-making. Is it time for such a thing in the policing world?
I think the lesson of PHAC is that we would be better off without it.
skimmed! One area I find scary was no one read the intelligence reports seriously. Yikes. It seems there was plenty of evidence that this was no regular type protest etc. otherwise I’m with Daniel. One other thought was ,what was his mandate or assumed priorities when hired. Often a leader is picked to fix one set of problems, wakes up up to a whole new set! Furthermore he makes no reference to a mentor or someone whose seen it all! Seemed very isolated. Finally I had no sense any of them had a critical assessment of the earlier report on the tragedy at the cenotaph,storm-in of Parliament by the lone gunman. Plenty of acknowledged risk in our authority structure re-policing etc for all to see. Thanks for the excellent coverage.
I was surprised and impressed with the clarity and emotion in Mr. Sloly's responses because of the media castigation of him over the past year. A number of issues caught my attention but which appear to have been ignored by most commentators. The former chief described the Convoy as being not one but a multitude of convoys each with none or many self-appointed leaders, making negotiations difficult. The OPP had negotiated with some or all of the convoy leaders and reached agreements with them as to their access to city streets The convoys ignored these agreements on reaching the city, again negating any meaningful negotiations. The legal advice to the OPS was that it could not legally deny the truckers access to the city from the regional highways. Keeping in mind the fact that the convoy was made up of a tiny percentage of the population who had refused to follow health department orders, municipal government laws, provincial laws and federal laws because they believe that they have the right to pick and choose which laws they should follow in a democratic country. While people died in their tens of thousands, these convoys raised the contempt of millions of people who believed in the making sacrifices for the public good. An impossible situation for police forces to cope with while also lacking a clear command structure and the failure of leadership from many political leaders.
I understand that Chief Sloly used his best judgement, and decided that the protestors would be in town for only a few days and would depart. He planned accordingly. What I do not understand is why he did not draw up a contingency plan, just in case he was wrong and a massive number of protestors decided to stay indefinitely. Was he so confident in his own judgement that he could not admit the possibility of being wrong?
This piece reminded me that there's a river running through Ottawa. I'd love to hear from someone north of that river. We've heard from a lot of cops, but seeing as we learned this week it's never too late to compel new witnesses, id love to know what Gatineau police thought of the convoy. They dealt with the Farfadaas, and seemed to succeed in avoiding a second Coventry Road situation. The second and third weekends, they seemed to show some attempt at helping by closing lanes on the Mac-Cartier bridge, which just seemed to snarl traffic but didn't stop the flow of F-150s with Fck Trudeau drapeaus. The second Saturday i got stuck in Hull and walked back across Alexandra with my kids, among a constant flow of folks in both directions shouting about libâaarté. (Seriously i wish everyone who is proud of this "Western" movement would understand how many of the trucks had 819 numbers on them) Really, this isn't trolling, i just do wonder what police on the other side thought, what they were told, what they were prepared to do to help, etc. Maybe after Counsellor Fleury, the Commission couldn't handle another Francophone... Oh darn, now i am trolling after all...
What is the significance of 819 numbers?
819 is the area code for Gatineau and the surrounding areas of Quebec. 613 is the area code for Ottawa and eastern Ontario. Commercial trucks usually carry advertisements, including the telephone numbers of the businesses that they serve.
TY. I should have realized. It’s pretty much impossible to know where anyone is from in BC based on the area codes anymore.