The findings of the Public Order Emergency Commission will be released later today
As the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) gets ready to release its long-awaited report on last winter’s convoy protests, many of the witnesses from the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa Police Service who testified last fall have either left or moved to new jobs.
On Thursday, the commission said that its final report would be made public today after it was presented to Parliament.
The Canadian Press said that the commission had asked for and been given more time than the original Feb. 6 deadline to give the government its final report.
The deadline for putting the report in front of Parliament, Feb. 20, stayed the same, though. That meant that the commission’s findings and suggestions had to be made public by Monday, which was a holiday in Ontario for Family Day.
(The Emergencies Act says that the report must be given to Parliament and made public within 360 days of the end of the emergency, which happened on February 23, 2022.)
Mayor, councillors gon
From October 14 until November 25, when the prime minister spoke in public, 76 people testified in front of the commission. Seven of them were either elected officials or senior bureaucrats with the City of Ottawa, and five more were senior members of the Ottawa Police Service (OPS).
Former mayor Jim Watson, former councillor and police services board chair Diane Deans, and former councillors Mathieu Fleury and Catherine McKenney all testified, but none of them is still in office. Only McKenney ran for re-election last fall, but he did not win. The others did not win the election to be mayor.
Kim Ayotte, who is the general manager of emergency and protective services in Ottawa, is the only one of the other city officials who testified who still has the same job.
Former city manager Steve Kanellakos, who testified about trying to make a deal between the police and the protesters, resigned amid controversy on November 28, just two days before a damning report on Ottawa’s troubled LRT project was released.
Serge Arpin, who used to be Watson’s chief of staff, left with his boss, which is common for political staffers.
All 5 OPS witnesses remai
All five senior members of the Ottawa Police Service who testified before the commission last fall are still there, though most of them have changed jobs. (This doesn’t include former chief Peter Sloly, who quit during the occupation of Ottawa by convoy protesters and hadn’t worked in law enforcement for more than eight months by the time he testified before the commission in late October.)
Steve Bell is now the OPS’s deputy chief and chief administrative officer. He was named interim chief after Sloly quit, and he was in charge of breaking up the protest in Ottawa. Bell was in charge of the force’s intelligence, information, and investigations when the convoy arrived in Ottawa.
Patricia Ferguson, who said there was a lot of “dysfunction” at the top of the OPS and that the force was “floundering” after the first weekend when protesters didn’t leave the capital, is still the acting deputy chief.
Russell Lucas, who was an inspector in the special events section of the police service during the protests, is now an acting superintendent, the OPS said in an update on Thursday.
The OPS lists Supt. Robert Bernier, an inspector in the communications branch of the force who was put in charge of an event during the occupation, as both an acting superintendent and an inspector.
Supt. Robert Drummond, who was in charge of the police team that talked to protest leaders and the public order unit that helped end the occupation, still has that rank. (Drummond was playing a part when he testified last fall.)
‘Multiple points of failure
In an email to CBC, Paul Champ, a lawyer who represented downtown residents and businesses during the Emergency Act inquiry, said that the commission heard “extensive evidence of multiple points of failure” by both government officials and police.
“Even though many of the people who made mistakes have moved on, the POEC report will keep track of them and help public officials learn from them.” I’d also like the police, the city, and the province to say sorry, but I know that’s probably asking too much.
He also said that he hopes the report will give some advice “about how the Ottawa Police Services Board can watch over and guide the Ottawa Police Service.”
At 10 a.m. ET, journalists covering the investigation will be able to look at a version of the report that has been kept secret. The embargo will be lifted once the report is tabled in Parliament.
Paul Rouleau, who is a commissioner, will also read a prepared statement. This will be live-streamed on the commission’s website, where the full report will also be posted.