Ottawa Mayor Says Securing Tow Trucks Under Emergencies Act Was Most Important Measure to End Protest

Food and necessities donated to truckers are left beside trucks parked in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 6, 2022. Noé Chartier/The Epoch Times

Procuring tow trucks to clear the Freedom Convoy protest was the most important measure that was implemented through the invocation of the Emergencies Act, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson told the Public Order Commission on Tuesday.

Watson was being asked by commission counsel whether he knew which measures were used under the act to end the protest.

The mayor said the “single biggest issue for us was that if we moved in, we didn’t have the capacity to move the trucks out.”

Ottawa City Manager Steve Kanellakos told the commission on Oct. 17 that towing companies were refusing to remove the trucks taking part in the Freedom Convoy protest for three reasons.

Those included fearing for their safety, not wanting to damage their reputation with the truckers, and because they supported the protest, he said.

Watson told the commission he wasn’t sure who secured the tow trucks that eventually did the work, nor under which authority they were secured.

“I’m assuming that it would have been a combination of the police and the city that procured them,” Watson said.

“We were told by every tow truck company that they were not going to participate, and then when the Emergencies Act was introduced, tow trucks suddenly appeared. So I think the cause and effect was yes, the Emergencies Act compelled them.”

The commission is examining the invocation of the act by the Liberal government on Feb. 14 to clear convoy protests in Ottawa and blockades at border-crossings and other locations calling for the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.

Watson said he didn’t request the federal government to invoke the act, nor was he consulted about the invocation, but he says it was necessary to end the protest which had settled in Ottawa for three weeks.

“It’s fine for someone out West or down East to say it was overkill. No, we needed that act, we needed to give our police resources, the tools they could use, such as tow trucks, and so on to actually solve the problem or this thing would have gone on for many, many more days, if not weeks,” Watson told the commission.

Compelling Towing Companies

Watson’s opinion that declaring a public order emergency was necessary to compel towing companies to remove heavy trucks has also been shared by the Liberal government.

“That power found itself in the Emergencies Act and it could not be granted to the police without its invocation,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said on June 8.

This claim of inability to compel towing companies under normal authorities has been challenged during the special joint committee of MPs and senators which is also reviewing the invocation of the act.

On May 10, Conservative Sen. Carignan said during a committee meeting that towing companies could have been compelled without invoking the act by using Section 129 of the Criminal Code, which states that it is an indictable offence to resist or willfully obstruct a peace officer in the execution of his duty.

Carignan asked RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki how many towing companies had been charged under Section 129 for refusing to remove trucks.

“I’m not familiar with anybody being charged under that section of the Criminal Code,” Lucki said.

At another committee meeting on June 14, Carignan asked Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland whether the United States had offered tow trucks to Canada to deal with the issue, but Freeland did not answer directly.