Front Burner - How police responded to Ottawa's 'unprecedented' protests

Episode Date: February 9, 2022

For nearly two weeks, a core group of protesters has refused to leave Ottawa’s downtown core. Police estimate more than 400 trucks remain parked in the so-called “red zone.” Some businesses in the area have had to close their doors and some residents describe feeling intimidated. Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly has called the situation “unprecedented.” The mayor, Jim Watson, has called the situation “out of control,” and said the protesters are “calling the shots.” Today on Front Burner, CBC Ottawa reporter Judy Trinh talks about how police initially responded to the protest in the capital, how the response has changed and where things could go from here.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Jamie Poisson. A few days ago, the Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency. He gave an interview to a local radio station, News Talk 580. He said the protest in the city's downtown was... It's completely out of control because the individuals with the protest are calling the shots.

For nearly two weeks now, a core group of protesters have refused to leave the capital. Police estimate more than 400 trucks remain parked in the so-called red zone. Some businesses in the area have had to close their doors. And some residents described feeling intimidated. I also, as a woman of colour, I did not go out last weekend. Didn't go out during the week either. I was completely appalled to see what was happening. And then the messaging from the police chief didn't engender any confidence for me that it was safe for me to be outside.

On Monday, a judge granted an injunction to stop the incessant honking, ruling that while the protesters have the right to protest, quote, tooting a horn is not an expression of any great thought I am aware of. But as all this has gripped the city, it's been hard to not wonder about the police and how the situation got to the point where the mayor is saying the protesters are calling the shots. Today, I'm joined by my colleague Judy Trinh in Ottawa to talk about how police initially responded to the protests, how their response changed, and where things could go from here. and where things could go from here. Hey, Judy, thank you for being here.

My pleasure, Jamie. So I know that Ottawa Police Chief Peter Slowly has now called what's happening in Ottawa a siege. But can we back up here? How did the police initially prepare for a convoy of truckers and other protesters rolling into the city, some of whom, I should say, had stated their intention to dig in and stay a while? That's right. I was looking back and saw that on Friday, January 28. That's the first day that they started to arrive in Ottawa, the official Ottawa Police Twitter account put out a tweet. It was a graphic of a big truck and it says, we respect the rights of our communities to speak out. Our role as a police service is to provide a safe space for people to grieve and be hurt. Now, the tweet has been widely criticized by community members as putting up the welcome mat for protesters and setting the tone.

And even though this was technically an illegal demonstration, Jamie, you have to have a permit to protest on Parliament. Yeah, and they didn't. They didn't. But police did sound confident. The chief said that he could handle it if anything went sideways, as he told Power and Politics. We're hoping that the current level of communication and cooperation will continue. If it changes substantially, as I said earlier on, we have the capacity and the capability to make commensurate changes. By Sunday in Ottawa, the big mall downtown had to close, the Rideau Centre. Other businesses in the area had to close.

A nearby homeless shelter has said that one of their patrons was assaulted and that protesters demanded food from their soup kitchen. And yet on that same day, on the Sunday, slowly says that the protest is peaceful. And so how does he explain that, that description of what's going on? And so how does he explain that, that description of what's going on? Peaceful in the sense that a riot was averted. There was no violence, but definitely not peaceful to the residents of downtown Ottawa. Thousands live in the core.

And what they were hearing was constant, constant blaring of horns. They were seeing fireworks being illegally lit. And there were also just so many instances of bylaws being broken, not criminal laws yet, but bylaws. There was public urination, There was public urination, public defecation, public intoxication. And, you know, basically, in terms of it being, quote unquote, peaceful, it does seem that police weren't really getting into confrontations with protesters, right? That is what police said. They avoided ticketing and towing vehicles so not to instigate confrontations with demonstrators. I should point out that within a few days, the chief was saying that the trucks that they allowed into the city core were dangerous weapons. It's very easy to remove thousands of protesters. Not so easy to remove a five-ton truck.

Right. I did hear the police chief slowly talk about how this was an unprecedented protest. And he has been getting calls from all over the world from law enforcement saying they've never quite seen anything like this, the nature of this. And I want to talk about that more with you later. But first, I think it is worth noting here that the nature of this protest aside, Ottawa has obviously seen protests before, unpermitted ones, right? Ones that do block intersections. And what has the response been previously? So the last demonstration without a permit that blocked a major intersection was done by a small group of Indigenous and Black activists. That occurred on November 2020. It was during the pandemic.

Now, protesters were protesting to defund police or at least limit their budget. They set up a tent near the Rideau Centre, the mall that had to close during this protest, and it was blocking off access to Highway 417. Police let that go on for 36 hours. In the middle of the night, more than 50 officers moved in and dismantled it. At 3.30 a.m., dozens of police officers swarmed in,

arresting and charging 12 people with mischief. The reasoning was that it was blocking an emergency thoroughfare. Of course, after calling the protests peaceful on the Sunday, the way that the Ottawa police chief was describing the protests, it started to change pretty quickly after that.

And take me through how it did. It started to change because police realized these protesters weren't leaving and they didn't have the human resources, the officers to remove them. So the language of the chief changed. It went from a protest to an occupation. The chief actually said there may not be a policing solution to this. We are not as confident as we have been that police alone will resolve this situation substantially, never mind in totality.

And it's in that context that I make the statement there is likely no policing solution to this. But in combination with other efforts, there may be other opportunities to substantially reduce, if not end, this demonstration. He said he was going to ask for more federal help and more provincial help, and that could include the military. And once again, it comes back to those trucks. If you think about it, just three days ago, police started moving in concrete barriers

and they were on flatbed trucks. In order to do that, to keep the crowd at bay, they actually had to have a ring of approximately 12 to 15 police officers to push back the crowd so they wouldn't intervene in a police action. And that in itself took like a half hour. So imagine the human resources needed to do that. They're calling for 1,800 more officers. That's the request that they've made.

Yeah, that's a massive influx of personnel. As the police's rhetoric about the protests evolved, you know, midweek, last week, the protests themselves were evolving, right? And I just want to talk about that for a few minutes. By midweek, they seem to be getting more dug in, right? And tell me what's going on. Because police were not issuing tickets, because it appeared from the outside and residents were angry that there was numerous bylaw infractions with impunity. You could see perhaps protesters being emboldened. You know, Ottawa, Jamie, is a city that runs on laws, right? People believe in laws and we abide by them, but we are frustrated and we complain about them. In Ottawa, you need a permit to set up a lemonade stand, right?

Yes, and I remember that story from a while back. Those two little kids got ticketed, for having a lemonade stand. It was sad that I couldn't do it because I really like selling lemonade. The problem is this grassy piece of land, it's federally owned and managed by the National Capital Commission. The girls were told they needed a permit. The officer came out and provided further clarification and suggested that if they do not leave, they would receive a fine. So imagine 500 meters from Parliament Hill. You see not only illegal bonfires and food trucks

being set up and basically a party going on, firewood being brought in. Right. Bouncy castles. Yeah. Bouncy castles. But this is, you see protesters building a shed, moving in plywood and two by fours to build a wooden structure to protect their supplies of food, as well as their supplies of diesel and propane. It's incredible. It's surreal. Tell me about this parking lot that became a command post. So approximately five kilometres east of Parliament and about, you know, less than a 10 minute drive to Parliament Hill, there is a baseball stadium. It is the home of the Titans

baseball team. They were asked by the city if they could turn over the parking lot temporarily for the weekend, the first weekend, to allow police to direct some truck traffic to alleviate congestion downtown. And they are good corporate citizens and agreed. There was no talk of any overnight stays or anything like that. We did not authorize or permit the current demonstration. It was entirely for the city and police to facilitate their intents. What we'd like to believe was to alleviate some of the stress and congestion downtown and have the space if needed. What you see is the result.

So what happens? The tractor trailers come in. They set up there. It's what you see is the result. So what happens? The tractor trailers come in. They set up there. And initially, there was maybe one tent, one porta potty, you know, some food laid out. Then it became a logistics camp. Basically, dozens of truckers remain there. They sleep there. And Jamie, they actually were able to offload four saunas there.

Saunas. What? Saunas that they were planning to bring to downtown to keep protesters warm. They have two tractor trailers full of food. Two tractor trailers full of food. They have a huge tent with at least four barbecues. And what they were also doing was that this was the supply center for downtown. So here there would be huge drop-offs of fuel and food, and then they would use smaller trucks, smaller vehicles, and then drive them downtown and replenish supplies for drivers who were also sleeping in their cabs in the city's core.

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Tom Quiggan is an ex-RCMP officer and former military intelligence officer. I'm ex-military intelligence. I also worked for the RCMP for six years in national security, the integrated national security enforcement team. I'm one of the few court experts in the country. The other individual, also an ex-RCMP officer, Daniel Bullford, was part of the Prime Minister's security detail. He quit last year because he refused to be vaccinated. Wow. And what have you heard from these guys in terms of how they're assessing the protests themselves and the official response to those protests? They're only speaking to reporters they deem friendly. They don't consider CBC a friendly media outlet,

so we're unable to ask them questions. But in news conferences they've posted on Facebook, Daniel Bulford breaks that he has a good relationship with officers in charge of the current security plan. I actually know the officer in charge of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team here in Ottawa. We have a great relationship, or in the past we did anyway. Tom Piggin, the national security expert, mocks the Ottawa police response, basically calling it scattered and rudderless.

I think in terms of an actual strategy, as a lifelong intelligence officer who served in a variety of environments, I would say the opposition at this point doesn't actually have a strategy. They have a sort of weak goal and that they want the streets cleared, but they have no real idea how they want to get there. Also, the CEO... Okay. I have to say there have also been a few examples, particularly that first weekend, of it seeming like there were some police on duty who were at least somewhat friendly or sympathetic with the crowd. Certainly, that was the impression we heard from some of the protesters on their Zello channels. You know, they weren't arresting anyone.

Anytime they came by me, they kind of gave me a high five. You know, not really touching my hand, but raised their hand. Give me a wave, give me a smile, whatever. Yeah. You know, there are photos on social media of protesters posing with cops, giving the thumbs up. And in the crowd of protesters on Parliament Hill, we've seen a thin blue line flag.

So that's a flag, you know, that obviously represents police. And we've seen it flying amongst the protesters. So, Judy, I want to come back to that command post in that parking lot heading into this week, if we go back to the timeline, Ottawa police were signaling their intentions to step up enforcement. And you were actually at that command post parking lot when the police rolled in on Sunday night. And tell me what happened. Like, set the scene for me. So I get there. And what I saw were easily 70 police officers. Some were, they were riot squad or public order officers. There were a few who carried what is commonly called a riot gun. It fires non-lethal projectiles,

rubber bullets, tear gas, maybe tear gas. Right. So So but they're big. And what they were doing was that they would set up a wall of approximately 12 officers in front of each tent or each area that they wanted to search and they were after the fuel supply. So they were seizing diesel, gasoline, and propane, supplies for the downtown protesters. So police said they seized 3,700 liters of fuel that night. The protesters were stunned. They came in and they were taking the fuel. They were showing force by standing there with their weapons. Yeah, yeah, I saw some of the videos.

I was actually glued to your Twitter feed that night. Shit! Shit! Shit! You're the first! Take me down, assholes! How dare you do something like this when we're fighting for you! This command post that you described, which is sort of like an outdoor hotel where

people were centralizing supplies, how did this raid affect that? Did it cripple it, or? No, I think it strengthened their resolve. I would say about two hours after that raid,

one organizer went live on Facebook and took viewers through the camp. So we had a purple tanker, or sorry, an orange tanker sitting right here that had our purple farm fuel to feed these fucking heaters. And they took that. That's all they took. And a couple of jerry cans. Maybe like I think they said maybe he showed us barbecues that were still operating, volunteers cooking food. And he said they were all in good morale. And he said that the fuel supply to the downtown court would continue. And it's interesting, Jamie, because it looks like that's happening. But I should also note that police may be trolled right now. And the reason why I say that is that the police chief, Peter Sully,

said that they will ticket anyone they see supplying fuel to the protesters. But if you go to downtown Ottawa right now, you will see people pulling wagons of jerry cans. They don't mind if you're taking fuel to the guys? They don't seem to have a problem. They what? They don't seem to have a problem, no. Didn't they say that they would? Well, they took some last night? I don't know somebody took some

last night. For you guys it doesn't matter like you guys are walking by them and they don't care. How long are you guys going to be here for? But the interesting thing is there are people in a coordinated effort pulling wagons of jerry cans filled with Gatorade, filled with water, trying to distract police, trying to be able to get police on the grounds of charter breaches. So these are very interesting tactics. Deputy Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell said officers were swarmed by protesters while trying to confiscate canisters on Monday. What did he mean by that? They are outnumbered. So despite getting more police resources right now, that's not enough. I did not see the case that he's referring to,

but I will tell you about something that's making the rounds on social media. So this is a night in which people were openly partying, lighting fireworks. There was open alcohol. There was rowdiness. You can see in this video, police officers entering into a crowd trying to maintain some control. And the officers have to retreat. They actually back off as this group of protesters start screaming, freedom, freedom. Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom. Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! It is a sight to see that police were bullied by these protesters. Look, they're scared. They're backing up.

And that's a sense of just how overpowered they are in terms of the numbers in the crowd. So on Monday night, there was an emergency debate in Parliament and the prime minister showed up. He was in attendance and he said that this had to stop. But I wonder how you and the experts that you've talked to actually see that happening, especially since, as we talked about earlier in this conversation, the police chief is saying this protest is unprecedented, that we have these massive trucks, that this group is very well funded, and there is an incredible level of organization here. So, so how could this end? Well,

you talk about the funding. So, you know, the city of Ottawa, the mayor and the police chief wrote to GoFundMe initially and asked that organization to stop sending funds to the truckers convoy. And they obliged, basically withholding $9 million of $10 million in funds. But after GoFundMe decided that, another site went to host their fundraiser, a Christian fundraising site. And so far already, they've raised more than $6 million. So they have resources.

The other interesting thing is knowing that it's backed by what looks like American influence. You know, now that the organizers of this protest have appeared on Fox News, they are getting that level of support. So financially, I think they can go on for a long time. So the experts I spoke with, they think that two things has to happen. Either there is some type of infighting that breaks up the group. You know, they can't agree on next moves. So it splinters and that'll be easy for police then to break up. the army will be called in to assist, not to impose martial law or anything like that,

but sort of assist in civil actions. So could they be asked to be support in terms of like, for example, surrounding a truck while it's being towed? So right now, the police chief just said there are more than 400 trucks that are still in the downtown core. And a quarter of them have children. So parents. A quarter. A quarter of them have children in them. That's right.

A quarter of them have children sleeping in the cabs with their mom or their dad. So that adds another layer of complexity to it already, an incredibly complex, dynamic situation. Intense. Yeah. The thought of Canada's military coming in is an extraordinary image as well. So obviously we're going to keep very, very close ties on this. Judy, thank you so much for this. Thank you. My pleasure, too. All right, that is all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening. If you are a fan of this show, we would be so appreciative if you'd go online and give us a review on your favorite podcast app.

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