City manager hits back at idea meeting with feds would have sent convoy members home

The City of Ottawa's general manager says he doesn't think last winter's truck convoy would have left the city if the federal government agreed to meet with some members because the convoy was made up of different factions that didn't act in unison. 

"Not everybody was part of their group and listening to them," Steve Kanellakos said of his own talks with some convoy members at one point in the occupation. 

"There's no question that there were many leaders and they didn't all sing from the same hymn book," echoed Mayor Jim Watson, who did not meet with protesters directly, but used an intermediary to negotiate the movement of some heavy trucks off residential streets. 

From Jan. 28 to Feb. 19, people rallied against pandemic restrictions and government leadership and blocked local and main roads around Parliament Hill by clogging the streets with vehicles.

Kanellakos and Watson testified Thursday night before the special joint committee on the declaration of emergency.

That committee of MPs and senators — which was triggered by the federal government's use of emergency powers to end the protest — has been meeting on and off again for several months.

Their hearings come on top of the ongoing public inquiry into the use of the emergency powers, which is expected to hear from dozens more witnesses for several more weeks — including embattled former Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly on Friday. 

Kanellakos and Watson, along with the Thursday night's other committee witnesses — Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury and Kim Ayotte, the city's general manager of emergency and protective services — had already been questioned for hours during the early days of the public inquiry. 

Glen Motz, a Conservative MP on the committee, used Kanellakos's and Watson's Thursday night appearance to argue that Justin Trudeau's government should have met with protesters because they had "legitimate concerns."

Under questioning by Motz, Kanellakos said the convoy members he met with, including leader Tom Marazzo, were "reasonable [and] respectful."

But when asked by Motz if he believed protesters would have been "in a position to vacate" had they been "heard" by a higher level of government, Kanellakos said no. 

"They didn't have control over the entire group of people that were here in Ottawa and that's why we ran into trouble," Kanellakos said.

Rachel Bendayan, a Liberal member of committee who is also an accredited mediator, said "mediation requires the right parties around the table." 

Kanellakos and Bendayan's remarks came two weeks after Sloly told the same committee "there was never a unified other for any police agency to come to any substantive understanding [with] as to whether what was agreed to would actually happen."

Their testimony to the committee also came only two days after evidence entered into the inquiry indicated that an Ontario Provincial Police inspector thought a meeting between federal government representatives and the convoy organizers could have helped the protesters "save face, get a win and go home." 

'Our city was hurting'

Sen. Gwen Boniface, who also sits on the committee, said "there were many people there from a variety of views."

"What started out perhaps as a single grievance morphs into many grievances. You start negotiating with someone and you find out they can't lead and they switched, there's a different group in charge. So I think we all understand that's a convoluted situation to try to figure out."

Kanellakos has told the public inquiry the city was asked to negotiate with protesters after the Ottawa Police Service's own talks with convoy members broke down. 

He said a deal negotiated by Watson's intermediary resulted in about 40 heavy duty trucks leaving residential streets. 

But he added that other protesters in pickup trucks and other lighter vehicles refused to move and some even blocked the effort to concentrate the protest on Wellington Street.

"There wasn't an alignment of purpose by everybody that was on all those streets. They had different reasons for wanting to stay," Kanellakos told that inquiry. 

Members of the convoy, including Marazzo, Tamara Lich and Pat King, are expected to testify later in the inquiry. 

Late into Thursday's committee hearing, during its most heated moment, Larry Brock, another Conservative MP on the committee, criticized Watson for calling convoy members "yahoos."

"People who were there to support those truckers also include residents of your city," Brock said. "Were they yahoos as well? Were they those who were holding unacceptable views? Were they engaging in unacceptable behaviour?"

Brock ran out his clock before Watson could answer that question, but the mayor later doubled down and said "we were at the mercy of this mob that had taken over our city."

Watson then again criticized Conservative MPs, as he did during the protests, for their meeting with convoy members during the occupation. 

"It was not helpful at all to be mugging with selfie sticks and taking pictures with the convoy," he said under questioning by Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi.

"Our city was hurting and we needed some empathy and sympathy, not these kind of tactics."