Just hours before the federal government invoked the never-before-used Emergencies Act to deal with the convoy protest in Ottawa, the head of the RCMP told a senior public safety official that she felt police had not yet exhausted “all available tools,” the public inquiry examining the government’s response to the protests heard Monday.
In the early hours of Feb. 14, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki wrote to Mike Jones, chief of staff to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, about the measures the national police force would find useful if the act was invoked.
“That said, I am of the view that we have not yet exhausted all available tools that are already available through the existing legislation,” she wrote just before 1 a.m.
“There are instances where charges could be laid under existing authorities for various Criminal Code offences occurring right now in the context of the protest.”
Her email said the recently announced Ontario state of emergency also provided police with helpful deterrent measures.
“These existing tools are considered in our existing plans and will be used in due course as necessary,” Lucki wrote.
Later that day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the government was invoking the act.
The email was raised as Brendan Miller, a lawyer for the convoy organizers, questioned interim Ottawa police chief Steve Bell.
“I do believe there could have been other opportunities,” said Bell.
The Public Order Emergency Commission is holding an inquiry into the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to quell the protests that gridlocked parts of downtown Ottawa for weeks.
‘We had a plan’: Bell
On Feb. 12, the Ottawa Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police set up an Integrated Command Centre to coordinate enforcement.
“We had a plan, we were going to execute a plan” said Bell.
By that point, protesters had gridlocked parts of downtown Ottawa for three weeks
Bell also has told the inquiry the Emergencies Act was “significantly beneficial” as his officers leveraged the emergency powers to clear the streets over the weekend of Feb. 20.
Lucki’s email to Jones includes a list of measures the force would find useful if the act were to be invoked, including banning travel to prohibited areas and and blocking protesters from carrying gas and diesel to the protest zone.
Lucki has repeatedly stated her support for invoking the act.
“We used it as a big deterrent for people to come into the area,” Lucki told MPs on a parliamentary committee in February.
“We did use the measures that were put in the Emergencies Act, along with other authorities that we had.”