The Trudeau government invoked the federal Emergencies Act on Monday, February 14. The Mulroney Progressive-Conservative government passed that act in 1988, but it has never been used until now.
On Tuesday, Ottawa’s police chief Peter Sloly resigned.
The two events are not unconnected.
It all started at the end of January when hundreds of protesters drove into Ottawa in huge trucks, parked them all over the centre of the city, and refused to leave. Ottawa police did nothing to stop them. In fact, the local police virtually rolled out the red carpet of welcome.
The occupiers turned their vehicles into homes, heating them with diesel engines running 24/7, and amused themselves by honking their horns around the clock.
A private citizens’ legal initiative got at least some of the honking to stop. The toxic diesel fumes blanketing the centre of Ottawa continue unabated.
Weekends have seen a party-like atmosphere, with DJs, portable hot tubs, bouncy castles for the kids – many occupiers have children living in their truck cabs – and some desecration of national monuments.
Police stood by passively throughout. Never has a Canadian police force behaved in such a submissive way toward a large group of bullies and lawbreakers.
The fact that the occupiers in Ottawa are, in effect, armed with potentially deadly weapons called trucks has made the police’s job challenging. But even when smaller groups of occupiers on foot have bullied local residents the police flatly refused to lift a finger to protect their fellow citizens.
On the weekend prior to February 14, groups of occupiers not wearing masks invaded two downtown Ottawa grocery stores. Rather than requesting them to put on masks, the police reaction was to tell store managers they had no choice but to allow the unmasked invaders to endanger the health of their customers and staff.
Store managers chose to close down rather than surrender to bullies.
In the early days of the Ottawa occupation, the anti-COVID-mandate movement spread to other parts of the country.
Protesters targeted legislative buildings in Winnipeg, Toronto, Regina and Quebec City. Others blocked border crossings with their trucks. There were blockades in Alberta, Manitoba, and at the busiest crossing of them all, the Ambassador Bridge, which daily carries $400 million worth of goods between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan.
From the outset of the crisis Trudeau and his ministers told Canadians they believed local authorities had the tools necessary to deal with the situation.
They changed their minds, it seems, when it became clear the city of Ottawa and its police force had proven themselves unwilling or unable to do anything to uphold the rule of law and protect citizens.
It appears the federal government took note of the contrast between Ottawa’s response and that of Windsor, where, after seven days, police successfully ended the bridge blockade and restored Canada-U.S. cross-border traffic.
Lack of leadership from police chief and Ottawa mayor
The Ottawa occupation has continued for almost three weeks, shrinking to a hard core on weekdays. On weekends it has grown to a massive bacchanal that resembles a scene from a Hieronymus Bosch painting.
Peter Sloly, now the former chief of police, would alternately express misplaced concern for the invaders’ rights (as though blockading the entire downtown of a city with giant diesel-fume-belching vehicles were a form of charter-protected free speech) and open fear of the occupiers.
Sloly described the participants in the convoy as “dangerous” and “volatile.”
While Sloly is now gone, the rest of the police force remains in place. Many suspect the Ottawa police force is riddled with, in effect, fifth columnists, who are on the side of the occupiers, not the citizens they are supposed to serve. Ottawa citizens continue to worry that despite all the new tools at their disposal their police officers will keep sitting on their hands.
And then there is Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson’s role.
Aside from writing letters to the federal and provincial governments seeking more personnel, Watson’s only concrete move during the occupation was a kind of capitulation. Earlier on the same day that the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act, the Ottawa mayor effectively recognized the legitimacy of the illegal occupation.
In exchange for a chance for the convoy’s leaders to meet with him, Watson politely asked the occupiers to move their trucks off residential streets and onto Wellington Street, where Parliament is located.
Supposedly, the self-appointed leader of the convoy, Tamara Lich, agreed to this deal. So far, few trucks have moved.
If that movement of trucks were to happen it would only serve to further block the area in front of Parliament and complicate the task of removing them.
On Twitter, Catherine McKenney, the city councillor who represents most of downtown Ottawa, reacted to Watson’s waving of the white flag this way:
“We need residential areas & entire city cleared. This could have been done with enforcement tools we have. There was no need to make a deal with illegal occupiers. Dozens of trucks still parked in front of people’s homes. Ticket. Tow. Clear. Residents demand that Ottawa Police Service act now.”
One of the excuses Ottawa police have given for their inaction is their inability to get private towing companies to remove illegally parked vehicles. Those companies have contracts with the city, but have refused to respect their contracts. They say openly that they are afraid of the participants in the convoy.
Well, one of the provisions in the new federal Emergencies Act takes away that excuse. It allows authorities to, in effect, commandeer privately owned service providers – such as towing companies – and force them to provide their services.
At the news conference announcing the use of the Emergencies Act on Monday, the prime minister made a point of explaining this. He and his ministers were, in essence, telling the Ottawa police they were out of excuses for their failure to act.
We’ll see if that message gets through. A good many Ottawa residents have their doubts.
Role of RCMP and punitive financial measures
Of some comfort to worried Ottawans is another provision of the Emergencies Act that allows the RCMP to enforce municipal bylaws and provincial laws.
Even if the Ottawa police persist in turning a blind eye to the illegal occupation, RCMP officers could move in and fill the vacuum. The assumption here is that there are not lots of Mounties who take the occupiers’ side. We cannot be sure of that, at this stage.
What seems to scare at least some of the truckers taking part in this illegal action more than the police are the financial penalties Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced at Monday’s news conference. She said truckers who persist in breaking the law could have their bank accounts frozen and their insurance policies suspended.
Financial regulation is a federal domain in Canada, so only the federal government has the power to take those punitive actions. It is a power that frightens at least some of the truckers.
On Monday evening, following the federal announcement, a message went out purporting to be a meeting for the convoy participants on Twitter, which was open to anyone who wanted to participate or listen in. A number of participants at that meeting said they were scared to death of losing access to their bank accounts and having their insurance revoked. Were that to happen, it would make it impossible for them to earn a living.
The reassurances others who purported to be leaders offered were beyond bizarre. They told their nervous fellow occupiers not to worry because soon their movement would be replacing the elected government of Canada. Trudeau, they said, was all but gone.
This led to all kinds of conversation that sounded more like broad satire than anything real. And in fact, the meeting was infiltrated, and may have indeed been organized, by anti-convoy comedians hoping to humiliate and discredit the protestors. People tuning into the meeting were at times at a loss to tell who was being satirical and who was speaking genuinely.
As of Tuesday afternoon, in Ottawa we are still waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Trucks parked all over the centre of the city are still spewing their diesel fumes, while the city government appears to be in a state of panic and paralysis.
The weekend is fast approaching, and it is almost certain thousands are hatching plans to descend yet again on the capital, accompanied by hot tubs and bouncy castles.
Does anyone have a plan to stop them?
February 16, 2022 – Clarification by Editor: a previous version of this article included other stories and references made during the “emergency meeting” on Twitter. While some protesters did participate in the conversation, for the most part, the meeting was made up of anti-convoy comedians making fun of convoy protesters. The article has since been updated.
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