Ottawa: Officials from the Ottawa Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police have defended themselves on the ongoing inquiry in relation to the federal government’s use of the Emergency Act and said that a boilerplate plan was brought for “Freedom Convoy” protest in January on the assumption that it won’t last more than two days.
Ottawa Police Acting Deputy Chief Patricia Ferguson, who led the city’s law enforcement operation during the protest, recorded her statements about the protest that led to a three-week gridlock of downtown.
She said that they would have acted to early warnings from Ontario province police and other agencies but they weighed it against other intelligence and moved ahead with their standard events plan. Later, the situation accelerated.
The federal Liberals declared a state of emergency under the Act on February 14, giving police more powers to remove protesters who surrounded downtown streets outside Parliament Hill.