Marco Mendicino tells Emergencies Act inquiry of fears of the presence of weapons at Freedom Convoy protests, including Ottawa
On Feb. 6, just over one week after protests began in Ottawa, Mendicino’s chief of staff Mike Jones sent a text message to the prime minister’s deputy chief of staff Brian Clow that sheds light on his boss’ apparent frustration with the Ottawa Police Service .Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
Testifying at the Public Order Emergency Commission Tuesday, Mendocino explained that one of those additional measures was providing the Ottawa police with RCMP or Ontario Provincial Police support if necessary. Throughout his testimony, Mendicino spoke of fears the RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki passed on to him of the presence of weapons at various protests, namely at the blockade in Coutts, Atla., and possibly in Ottawa.
More concerning to him was information Lucki shared the morning before that Feb. 13 meeting, when she told him about the presence of weapons at the Coutts, Alta., border crossing. RCMP eventually made a significant arrest and seizure at Coutts. He also noted “early reports” from OPS that guns had been brought into Ottawa and “potentially into the parliamentary precinct.”
“That visual suggested to me that we were going to be in it for quite some time rather than just the weekend,” he said. “The concerns that I were expressing was that by that first weekend, It was my opinion that it was virtually impossible to enforce the law on Wellington Street.”Article content
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