Province slow to respond to ‘Freedom Convoy,’ Watson tells commission
Jim Watson #JimWatson
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says he was frustrated by the province’s lack of immediate help in ending the siege of Ottawa during the “Freedom Convoy” protest last winter.
Watson testified Tuesday at a federal inquiry into the convoy protests that occupied Ottawa downtown streets for three weeks as well as blocking U.S. border crossings at Windsor and Coutts, Alberta.
Watson said the province eventually stepped up, but in the early days of the occupation it was a struggle.
Premier Doug Ford, for example, said the province would not participate in meetings with municipal and federal officials to discuss the crisis on Feb. 7, 8 and 10, said Watson.
Ford told him the meetings would be a waste of time, Watson said.
“What’s it going to accomplish?” Watson said Ford asked him. “A bunch of people sitting around the table talking? And I said ‘that sounds like a cabinet meeting’. He didn’t like that.”
Ford also did not visit Ottawa during the protest. “Ford didn’t even make an effort to come and see what is going on”Ottawa,” Watson was quoted as saying during a meeting that included Prime Minister Justin Trudeau according to a summary that was tabled at the inquiry.
Watson said he generally had a good rapport with Ford, and believed the premier was sincere in his pledge to offer Ottawa “anything you need” during the convoy crisis. However, “that needed to be translated into action,” said Watson.
Ottawa lacked the police resources to end protest on its own, said Watson.
Watson also privately called Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones “disingenuous” for her claim that Ottawa already had OPP officers deployed, according to documents filed at the inquiry.
As the protest dragged into its second week, Jones said publicly that 1,500 OPP officers had been sent to Ottawa, but that was incorrect, Watson testified.
“There were 50 or 55.”
He speculated that Jones may have been using “cumulative numbers,” counting all the officers every time they came and went to Ottawa, he said.
On Feb. 7, Watson sent a letter to both Ford and Jones seeking help and describing a city under siege. “People are living in fear and they are terrified,” he wrote, calling the horn honking and other disruptions “psychological torture.”
The province seemed to view the convoy blockade at Windsor as a higher priority, because it was halting millions of dollars of trade very day, Watson testified.
He expected that once that blockade was ended, the OPP would move up to Ottawa, which is what happened, said Watson.
He said that once the OPP “got engaged” in Ottawa, they were good partners.
“We knew at some point we would get through to the province and they would come to help us, and they did.”
Watson also echoed earlier testimony from the Ottawa city manager and business leaders, saying no one expected the convoy demonstrators to stay for more than a day or two.
In is 25 years of experience, Watson said no city in Canada has seen the magnitude of the demonstration that Ottawa faced with the “Freedom Convoy”.
At a meeting with the chief of police and city manager on Jan. 26, a couple days before the convoy arrived, Watson said there was no clear sense of how many vehicles were coming and how long they would stay.
When the trucks began arriving, they realized “this was going to be bigger than any of us could have imagined,” he said.
Watson said he was horrified by the behaviour of demonstrators, calling it despicable and abhorrent.
Protesters danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial, put placards on the Terry Fox statue and allegedly stole food intended for the homeless.
Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly resigned on Feb. 15, a few days before police from across Canada moved in to remove the protesters and vehicles from city streets.
Sloly has said he resigned because the public was losing trust in the Ottawa police force.
Watson told the inquiry that he fully supported Sloly, who he said was doing the best he could. But Watson also said he was frustrated and under pressure as the protest dragged on.
In a phone call with Prime Minister Trudeau on Jan. 31, Watson was critical of Sloly, according to a summary tabled at the inquiry.
“These people have had their time and need to move on. We’ve been trying to get this across to the chief of police.”
In his testimony, Watson said he has the same question as everyone in Canada: why were the trucks allowed downtown in the first place and why did it took so long to end the occupation?
All three levels of government and the police can share the blame, he said.
jmiller@postmedia.com