The man who negotiated on behalf of the City of Ottawa with Tamara Lich and other Freedom Convoy organizers says a deal to allow truckers off the city’s residential streets hasn’t had enough time to materialize before the federal government uses its emergency powers to quell the weeks-long occupation.
“This is a black mark in Canadian history,” Dean French said of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act on February 14, just one day after news of a deal between the city and the truckers became public knowledge.
“History will show it was a total overreaction.”
Beginning in late January, protesters rallied against pandemic restrictions and blocked access to neighborhoods and major thoroughfares around Parliament Hill by clogging streets with trucks and other vehicles.
The triggering of the law gave authorities sweeping temporary powers, including the ability to freeze protesters’ bank accounts and credit cards and compel tow truck companies to help them extricate vehicles. Attendance at any event considered an illegal assembly, such as the Ottawa convoy protest, has also become illegal.
Last week, unsealed minutes of cabinet meetings revealed that Trudeau took the unprecedented step of invoking the law only a day after being told by his national security adviser of a potential ‘breakthrough’ in the crisis.
The Office of Canada’s Minister of Public Safety said later the minutes referred to City of Ottawa-led negotiations that “ultimately failed” after being “disavowed” by many convoy associates.
The government considered the outcome of these negotiations “as a factor in the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act”, added the minister’s office.
Meet the convoy leaders over a pizza
French, who resigned as Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s chief of staff in 2019 following a controversy over partisan appointments, said dozens of trucks began leaving residential areas when the Emergencies Act was invoked.
“Why wouldn’t Trudeau’s cabinet have waited until Sunday night [Feb. 13] say, ‘[Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson], a very credible and respected mayor, has a deal. Let’s just wait two or three days to see if this peaceful resolution works. If it’s not real, then let’s drop the hammer,” French said. power and politics host Vassy Kapelos on Wednesday.
French said he approached Watson to help resolve the convoy crisis in Ottawa on Feb. 10, four days before the Emergencies Act came into effect.
WATCH / Negotiator says Trudeau government should have waited
Dean French, who led negotiations between Ottawa mayor and convoy leaders, says the government should have waited to see if protesters cleared residential areas after a deal was struck before invoking the Act on emergency measures. “History will show that it was a total overreaction”
On Feb. 11, he said, he was meeting Lich and several other Freedom Convoy organizers in person over pizza at a downtown Ottawa hotel.
“We closed the deal that night, basically,” French said.
According to a February 12 letter from Watson to Lich, the agreement called for all protest trucks to be removed within 72 hours from residential areas and a baseball stadium parking lot. They were to move to Wellington Street just south of Parliament Hill.
If there was “clear evidence” that the convoy was beginning to clear neighborhoods before noon on Feb. 14, Watson would meet Lich, the mayor wrote.
In a response letter sent the same dayLich told Watson that the Freedom Convoy board agreed with his request “to reduce pressure on residents and businesses” and to consolidate vehicles around Parliament Hill.
“We will work hard over the next 24 hours to get truckers on board,” Lich wrote. “We hope to start repositioning our trucks on Monday.”
Lawyer Keith Wilson, who represents Lich in his non-criminal cases, gave CBC A memo de Lich and other convoy organizers, he said, was distributed to hundreds of convoy participants that day to tell them about the new strategy.
“We need to reposition our trucks so that we don’t give the Prime Minister the excuse that he desperately wants to use force and seize our trucks,” the memo reads.
Compelling trucking companies to help seize protest vehicles – one of the expanded powers allowed by invoking the Emergencies Act – was cited as an option in cabinet minutes as early as February 12, the day before from the day the firm heard about the potential breakthrough. Earlier this year, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told a parliamentary committee that emergency powers were helpful in dislodging protesters who had holed up on the streets of Ottawa for weeks and that there were times where the RCMP would have used these powers sooner had the law been invoked sooner.
Details of the deal were made public just hours before the cabinet meeting at which Trudeau and the assembled ministers were briefed on the “breakthrough”, French said.
“It was pretty clear,” he said of the deal. “I’m surprised the phrasing of the Prime Minister’s security adviser and cabinet wasn’t a bit more direct: ‘The mayor has a deal.’
WATCH / Power Panel Debates Use of Emergencies Act
Power panelists – Charelle Evelyn, Brian Gallant, Tim Powers and Kathleen Monk discuss the Liberal government’s use of the Emergencies Act.
Mixed signals on whether there was a deal
Some of the trucks – not all – left residential streets after the deal was announced, and Lich’s Twitter account cast doubt on the reality of a deal.
Kapelos also pointed out that another key figure in the convoy, Pat King, spoke out against the deal and that some protesters interviewed after the deal publicly said they would not budge.
“Yeah, there was a bit of backtracking and some clarity that needed to take place,” French said, adding that he “would love to know” how many trucks had moved according to the Ottawa Police Service.
“I think that’s the key question,” French said of the public inquiry that will begin Sept. 19 to analyze the Trudeau government’s reasons for resorting to emergency measures.
Watson’s office confirmed this week that the mayor had never met Lich.
The mayor declined to comment on the reported “breakthrough”, citing his scheduled appearance at the inquest.
A full list of witnesses will be released closer to the launch of the investigation, a spokesman for the Public Order Emergency Commission said.
Poor police communication hampered move: Lich’s lawyer
In a tweet last week criticizing the Trudeau government for invoking the Emergencies Act when it did, Wilson said the deal between the city and convoy organizers was signed on Feb. 12. .
The deal brokered between Truckers & City was signed on Saturday. Logistics meeting held at City Hall Sunday afternoon with police/city. The trucks started moving on Monday morning, and others moved on Tuesday. Despite this, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act. I was there and did the negotiations. https://t.co/jggTN4pf0O
In an emailed statement, Wilson said the Feb. 13 tweet from Lich’s account indicating there was no deal was “poorly worded.”
He also pointed to a follow-up message that the plan would go ahead.
The trucks started moving the next morning “but poor communications within the various police departments resulted in the trucks getting stuck while moving,” Wilson said.
Other trucks were also expected to move over the next two days. But Wilson said February 16 – two days after the Emergencies Act came into effect and a day when police started circulating notice to protesters telling them to leave downtown Ottawa — he was “told that the feds and the new police chief were preventing the deal from being implemented and that no more trucks would be allowed to travel” to Wellington or out of town.
Other unsealed court documents – which stem from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association suing the federal government for its use of the law – hint at communication problems with police during the occupation.
“It appears there is no plan in Ottawa as the Chief of the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) has yet to approve the plan developed with the RCMP and OPP,” reads the statement. the minutes of the February 12 cabinet meeting and other members of the Government Incident Response Group.
“During the [meeting]confirmation has been obtained that the OPS Chief Constable has agreed to the plan.”
Later in the meeting, it was noted that there continued to be “difficulties working with the integrated planning team in Ottawa around communication and especially the Chief of OPS”.
Peter Sloly resigned as Ottawa Police Chief on February 15, the day after the law was invoked and amid allegations that he came into conflict with members of the Ontario Provincial Police and the RCMP tasked with assisting the city’s law enforcement efforts during the crisis.
The Ottawa Police Service declined to comment on the court report and Wilson’s claims regarding police communication, citing the upcoming public inquiry.
“Although the Ottawa Police Service has not yet received information confirming that they will have the opportunity to attend the public hearing, we intend to cooperate fully with the public inquiry and, if we have the opportunity, we will appear before the Public Order Emergency Commission,” a police spokesperson said.
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