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A senior member with the Ottawa Police Service says the force should have taken intelligence that suggested the Freedom Convoy protesters planned to stay past two days more seriously.
Patricia Ferguson, acting deputy chief of the Ottawa Police Service (OPS), made the admission while testifying before the Public Order Emergency Commission on Thursday. The commission is studying whether the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to move the protesters was justified.
One of the questions the public inquiry has been digging into is whether Ottawa police shrugged off signs that the protesters planned to entrench themselves.
On Wednesday, the inquiry heard that the Ontario Provincial Police intelligence bureau had warned that a mass anti-government protest could be headed to Ottawa in early January.
Supt. Pat Morris, who heads the OPP’s Provincial Operations Intelligence Bureau, testified that by Jan. 20 — more than a week before the Freedom Convoy protests began — the OPP believed the protest would be “a long-term event.”
Evidence presented at the commission also showed that police and city officials had received a warning from the Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association that someone from the Canada United Truckers Convoy had reached out looking to book hotel rooms for at least 30 days.
WATCH | Ottawa police should have ‘given more credibility’ to information on convoy protest plans
Patricia Ferguson explains that Ottawa police should have taken the information they had around how long the protestors planned to stay in the city more seriously.
An email entered into evidence Thursday showed that even some within the Ottawa Police had a sense that the convoy headed to Ottawa was unlike other protests.
“The goal of the convoy is to remain in Ottawa until the restrictions are repealed,” said one email, dated Jan. 21, from the force’s events planning unit.
That email also said the protesters were raising large amounts of money through their GoFundMe page.
But Ferguson said Ottawa police acted under the assumption that the crowds would clear out after the first weekend.
“We weighed the information and the intelligence we had and that was the plan was developed based on what our best assessment of that was,” she said.
Commission lawyer Frank Au asked Ferguson what she would have done differently leading up to the first weekend “in hindsight.”
“I suppose we would have given more credibility to the information and the intelligence telling us there was a faction that [they] were planning on staying for a much longer period of time,” Ferguson replied.
By the end of January, the OPS’ view of the protest had changed.
“No longer a protest but an occupation now,” reads a Jan. 31 note from Ferguson’s executive assistant, presented at the commission.
No plan after first weekend
Ferguson, who was in charge of community policing at the time of the protests, said the OPS’s original contingency plan only extended to noon on Monday, Jan. 31.
They still didn’t have a new plan by Feb. 4, a week after protesters and their vehicles had first rolled into the city, because the force was “putting out fires” and dealing with staffing, Ferguson testified.
She said leading up to the first weekend, staffing at the Ottawa police was hindered by sickness and leave.
The force was “on our knees,” said Ferguson.
WATCH | Ottawa police acting deputy chief questioned about truck convoy response
Patricia Ferguson says Ottawa police should have alerted the public and businesses that the truck convoy demonstrations could last beyond a weekend.