Ottawa Police Service (OPS) interim chief Steve Bell says that when he referred to violence during the Freedom Convoy protest, he was referring mostly to violence that was “felt” by the community and not as defined in Canada’s Criminal Code.
Bell was testifying before the Public Order Emergency Commission at its Oct. 24 hearing as part of its inquiry into the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to clear the protest in February.
Throughout the day Bell mentioned that the protest was riddled with violence.
At one point he said he had “extreme concerns for the safety of our members, for the safety of our community based on the volatility and escalation in violence.”
He said the community experienced “trauma and violence.”
These assertions were challenged by the lawyer representing the protesters, Brendan Miller, who raised previous testimony before the commission by Ontario Provincial Police intelligence chief Supt. Pat Morris.
Bell said he didn’t recall that statement.
“So is it fair to say that when you use the phrase ‘violence,’ you’re not actually describing any form of physical assaults?” asked Miller.
“Physical assaults do contribute to what I’m describing. I was specifically describing the violence that our community felt as a result of the combination of actions that the occupiers engaged in,” said Bell.
“So the violence that they felt, not actual violence, is that what you’re saying?” Miller asked.
“That is correct,” said Bell.
Bell added that he was not referring to the definition of the Criminal Code when mentioning violence, but rather the violence of truck horns blaring at all hours, of people having their masks ripped off, and of people sheltering in their homes.
Miller also asked Bell whether he was referring to violence under Section 2 of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Act, which pertains to terrorism and sabotage, when he mentioned violence.
Bell said that this wasn’t the case.
Miller presented an OPS chart with the charges that were laid by date during the protest and remarked that on Jan. 28 and Feb. 13, a total of five charges related to violence were laid.
“So you’d agree with me that that’s not unprecedented violence,” Miller said.
“What I saw as I defined violence, it wasn’t strictly Criminal Code violence,” Bell said.
“It was the trauma that the community felt. It was the extreme circumstances that they were exposed to, the duration of time that they were exposed to. It has very clearly been described to me by community members as violence inflicted on them.”
The public hearings of the commission began on Oct. 13. The first witnesses to testify on Oct. 14 were residents of Ottawa, who said they were negatively impacted by the three-week protest.
