Ottawa police procuring equipment ahead of possible 'Freedom Convoy' reboot: chief
Ottawa's new police chief says his officers have already begun preparing for a possible reboot of the 'Freedom Convoy' protest next year, and vows there will not be a repeat of the occupation that took over downtown Ottawa for weeks last winter.
"We will be ready," Chief Eric Stubbs told CTV News on Monday. "The ultimate goal of all this planning and preparing is to ensure that what happened last year doesn't happen this year."
"We feel that we're in a place right now where given the information that we have, that our preparations are well in hand."
Last month, James Bauder, the founder of the Canada Unity group and one of the original organizers of the protests, announced that he is calling for a second round next February.
Bauder posted on Facebook calling for a 'Freedom Convoy 2.0' Feb. 17 to 21 in Ottawa, calling it an "olive branch edition" that would depart Ottawa on Feb. 22.
Stubbs said police have already done "significant" work to address a potential protest in February. He said that includes intelligence gathering, speaking with other police forces including the OPP and RCMP, and procuring equipment.
"We've made significant plans already in terms of retaining infrastructure and equipment," he said. In a note to council and the mayor on Monday, Stubbs said police are planning "vehicle mitigation strategies" with tow trucks.
He added that Ottawa police have already reached out to the organizers of the protest, even though they have not announced their final plans, to remind them of the city's expectations around lawful assembly and the "unwavering posture" of police and the city.
The Ottawa police handling of the convoy occupation was a central theme of the public order emergency commission this fall, which examined the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act to end the protest. The police force's preparation, intelligence gathering and decision to allow trucks to park on Wellington Street came under heavy criticism.
Stubbs has been on the job for just over a month. His predecessor Peter Sloly resigned at the height of the convoy protest, and Steve Bell did the job on an interim basis until Stubbs was sworn in on Nov. 17.
Stubbs said the force plans to apply the lessons learned since the convoy protest ended.
"There's been a lot of changes since February in terms of how the OPS is preparing potentially for this year," Stubbs told CTV News, pointing to the police handling of the 'Rolling Thunder' motorcycle protest earlier this year and demonstrations planned on Canada Day as examples.
In those instances, police did not allow protest vehicles into the downtown core, but said protesters would be allowed to enter on foot.
"How we're going to approach a Convoy 2.0 is to ensure that the downtown core is safe and that vehicle-based protests don't occur."
Last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security advisor Jody Thomas told a parliamentary committee that senior officials are planning for the possibility of another convoy protest.
Thomas said Mike MacDonald, an assistant secretary to the cabinet within the Privy Council Office, has already chaired meetings "to start looking at how we're going to respond."
MacDonald told the committee is coordinating more directly with police than in the past.
"I have a deeper relationship with the Ottawa police and directly sit and talk with them about these issues, and that really didn't happen before," he said.
Stubbs said he will brief council and the public as more information becomes available in the new year.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.