Residents forced to take action themselves during convoy crisis, councillors testify

The two Ottawa city councillors whose wards became ground zero for last winter's convoy protest say police and city officials failed and abandoned residents of those downtown neighbourhoods, forcing some to take action themselves.

Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney, whose ward encompasses Centretown and Parliament Hill, and Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury, whose ward includes Rideau Street and the ByWard Market, testified Friday at the public inquiry into the federal government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to help end the protests.

On Feb. 16, McKenney dialled into a city council meeting live from Kent Street, where parked trucks festooned with flags continued to clog the road and a third weekend of chaos loomed.

"I needed people to see what was happening," McKenney, said of the video that was shown during the hearings Friday. "I just did not feel that police, the city, had a plan for the weekend. It was Wednesday night."

Growing sense of fear, frustration

McKenney and Fleury described a growing sense of fear and frustration among downtown residents and business owners as the occupation wore on, and as police appeared to be focusing their attention on the few blocks nearest Parliament Hill, largely ignoring the residential streets just beyond the "red zone."

While neither witnessed any acts of violence, both said they received reports of residents being harassed and assaulted, sometimes for the simple act of wearing a mask and venturing outside their homes. The situation would worsen on weekends, the councillors said, when protest sympathizers flooded into the downtown from outlying areas.

In emails presented during Friday's hearings, downtown residents pleaded with the councillors for an end to the occupation.

"It was a general sense of fear, terror and dismay that they felt abandoned by their city and by their police," McKenney testified. "People were very nervous seeing that occupation was expanding onto the streets where they lived."

McKenney, who's running for mayor, said they forwarded the emails to then Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly and other city officials in preparation for the "inevitable inquiry" that would follow. "I didn't know what else to do at that point. I didn't feel like there was any support available to us."

Police focused on red zone

Among the other videos presented Friday were several demonstrating the sometimes unrelenting blare of truck horns, often just outside apartment windows. Another video showed a dump truck driving against traffic down a residential street before jumping the curb and continuing down the sidewalk.

Still, police resources remained "almost exclusively focused" north of Laurier Avenue, McKenney said, describing a police liaison officer's refusal to look into complaints that the doors of an apartment building just outside the red zone had been handcuffed closed.

"I knew then that police response to the convoy did not include residential areas," McKenney said.

Both McKenney and Fleury said they became targets for threats and personal attacks from protesters. When Fleury suggested on social media that their funding sources be cut, protesters in a pickup truck showed up at his home and hurled abuse, prompting Fleury to move his wife and their young child to a safer place until the occupation ended.

Council response 'too slow'

Fleury described the lacklustre police response to a takeover of Rideau Centre by protesters on the first weekend, leading the mall to close its doors for an unprecedented 24 days. He testified that in one case, police refused to enter the Rideau LRT station to clear out protesters who were gathering there.

Response to bylaw complaints also slowed, Fleury said, because many of those calls were being funnelled to police who were too busy to follow up.

Asked to describe city council's response to the protest, Fleury's response was brief: "Too slow," he answered.

Fleury also suggested that some of his council colleagues whose suburban wards were not clogged with trucks had less on the line. Likewise, the mayor's decision of a state of emergency on Feb. 6 was too little, too late — and largely symbolic.

"It took a lot of time for our colleagues to wake up to the seriousness of the issue," Fleury said.

He described the city's typical response to an emergency such as a flood, tornado or bus crash, when top officials, seated behind a white table, hold frequent news conferences to keep residents informed and reassured.

"I didn't see that white table during this situation, ever," Fleury said.

Counter protest a 'watershed moment'

Describing the days leading up to the protesters' arrival, Fleury said much of his information about the convoy that was approaching the city came from his constituents rather than city officials or police.

"We received very little communication, but residents started to inform us," he said.

Questioned about a counter-protest that took place on Riverside Drive near Billings Bridge on Feb.13, when hundreds of locals blocked the progress of a small convoy of pickup trucks heading downtown, McKenney called it a "watershed moment" when frustrated residents finally decided to take matters into their own hands.

But McKenney also revealed that a plan to hold a similar counter-protest on Fifth Avenue in the Glebe was abandoned over fears for surrounding homes in case things got out of control.

"It was decided that it would occur on Riverside, where there were no residents living," McKenney said.

The Public Order Emergency Commission resumes Monday when more city officials including Mayor Jim Watson are scheduled to testify.