As Emergencies Act report tabled, key witnesses have moved on

As the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) prepares to release its highly anticipated report into last winter's convoy protests, many of the witnesses from the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa Police Service who testified last fall have either left or moved to new roles.

On Thursday, the commission announced it would make its final report public later today after tabling it in Parliament.

The Canadian Press reported the commission had requested, and been granted, an extension to the original Feb. 6 deadline for submitting its final report to the government.

The deadline for tabling the report in Parliament — Feb. 20 — remained intact, however. That meant the commission's findings and recommendations had to be made public no later than Monday, the Family Day statutory holiday in Ontario.

(The timeline set out by the Emergencies Act requires that the report be submitted to Parliament and released to the public within 360 days of the emergency declaration being revoked, which occurred on Feb. 23, 2022.)

Mayor, councillors gone

The commission heard from 76 witnesses over six weeks of public testimony, from Oct. 14 until the prime minister's appearance on Nov. 25. Of those, seven were either elected officials or senior bureaucrats with the City of Ottawa, and five more were senior members of the Ottawa Police Service (OPS).

None of the elected officials from the city who testified — former mayor Jim Watson, former councillor and police services board chair Diane Deans, and former councillors Mathieu Fleury and Catherine McKenney — remains in office. Of those, only McKenney ran for re-election last fall, but failed in their bid to become mayor.

Of the other city officials who testified, only Kim Ayotte, Ottawa's general manager of emergency and protective services, remains in the same job.

Former city manager Steve Kanellakos, who testified about his efforts to broker a deal between police and the protesters, resigned amid controversy on Nov. 28, just two days before the release of a damning report on Ottawa's troubled LRT project.

Watson's former chief of staff Serge Arpin left with his boss, customary practice among political staffers. 

All 5 OPS witnesses remain

All five senior members of the Ottawa Police Service who testified before the commission last fall remain, though most have changed jobs. (This doesn't include former chief Peter Sloly, who resigned during the occupation of Ottawa by convoy protesters, and who had been out of policing for more than eight months by the time he testified before the commission in late October.) 

Steve Bell, who was named interim chief after Sloly's resignation, and who oversaw the eventual dispersal of the protest in Ottawa, is now a deputy chief and chief administrative officer of the OPS. At the time of the convoy's arrival in Ottawa, Bell was in charge of intelligence, information and investigation for the force.

Patricia Ferguson, who testified to the deep "dysfunction" at the top of the OPS, and said the force was left "floundering" when protesters failed to leave the capital after the first weekend, remains acting deputy chief.

Russell Lucas, an inspector with the police service's special events section during the protests, is currently an acting superintendent, according to an update provided by the OPS on Thursday. 

Supt. Robert Bernier, an inspector within the force's communications branch who was appointed event commander during the occupation, is also listed by the OPS as an acting superintendent. 

Supt. Robert Drummond, who was tasked with overseeing the police liaison team that negotiated with protest leaders and the public order unit that eventually helped end the occupation, also maintains that rank. (Drummond was in an acting role at the time of his testimony last fall.) 

'Multiple points of failure'

In an email to CBC, Paul Champ, a lawyer who represented downtown residents and businesses during the Emergencies Act inquiry, noted the commission heard "extensive evidence of multiple points of failure" by both government officials and police.

"Even though many of those responsible have left the stage, the POEC report will memorialize those mistakes and serve as a guide for public officials going forward. I would also like to see some apologies by the police, the city and the province, but that's probably asking too much," Champ wrote.

He said he also hopes to see the report provide some guidance "about the oversight and direction the Ottawa Police Services Board can have over the Ottawa Police Service."

Journalists covering the inquiry will be allowed to peruse an embargoed version of the report starting at 10 a.m. ET. The embargo will be lifted once the report is tabled in Parliament.

Commissioner Paul Rouleau will also read a prepared statement, which will be streamed live on the commission's website, where the full report will be made available to the public.