Former Ottawa Police Chief Says He Did Not Request Emergencies Act

Then-Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly speaks at a news conference in Ottawa, on Feb. 4, 2022. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

Former Ottawa Police Service (OPS) Chief Peter Sloly said on Thursday neither he nor anyone in the service he directed asked the federal government to invoke the Emergencies Act to deal with the Freedom Convoy.

“I did not make that request. I’m not aware of anybody else in the Ottawa Police Service who did,” he said.

Sloly was testifying before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, which is studying expanding the parliamentary precinct in light of this winter’s large-scale and long-term protest.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino have said repeatedly that the public order emergency was declared on advice from law enforcement.

Based on these statements, different law enforcement officials testifying before House committees have been asked if they requested or advised in favour of invoking the act.

Sloly’s successor, interim chief Steve Bell, told the same committee on May 17 “we didn’t make a direct request for the Emergencies Act.”

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency on May 10 that she did not request the Act nor did she know of any other police leadership that did.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) neither confirmed nor denied it requested the act when asked by The Epoch Times.

“The decision to declare a public order emergency was made by the Governor in Council,” a CBSA spokesperson said.

Sloly submitted his resignation on Feb. 15, a day after the Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act to deal with cross-country protests and blockades demanding the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.

He had been under intense criticism by opponents of the Freedom Convoy for allowing it to take root in downtown Ottawa and for not being able to clear the protesters and their hundreds of trucks.

City councillor Diane Deans said during an Ottawa Police Services Board meeting that the board and Sloly had “reached a mutually agreed-upon separation.”

Sloly told the committee the Freedom protest was “unprecedented” and “unforeseen.”

“The level of organization, the level of counterintelligence, the level of logistics, the level of planning, the level of financial resources, the level of commitment, individually and collective, was on a scale that I had not experienced.”

Bloc Québécois MP Marie-Hélène Gaudreau asked Sloly how is it that the OPS “needed to respect regulations and rules when we know in advance that trucks are coming, holding bombs potentially, and they’re not moving?”

“I can assure you that the characterizations you just laid out are not accurate,” replied Sloly. “I’m not aware of any intelligence that suggested that there were munitions and IEDs attached to any of the vehicles coming.”

Andrew Chen contributed to this report.