Military was told to prepare to intervene in 'Freedom Convoy' protests: official
Military was told to prepare to intervene in 'Freedom Convoy' protests: official
OTTAWA -
The Defence Department's top official says he directed the military to prepare to intervene in the "Freedom Convoy" protests earlier this year, but the resulting plans were never seriously considered -- in part due to concerns about another Oka Crisis.
Deputy minister Bill Matthews and another top defence official also said the Canadian Armed Forces was prepared to fly police officers to demonstration sites across the country, but that its tow trucks were too big Γüá-- and too old Γüá-- to help with the protests.
Matthews and Defence Department associate deputy minister Stefanie Beck made the comments in an August interview with lawyers for the public inquiry looking into the Liberal government's decision to use the Emergencies Act to end the protests.
A summary of that interview is among thousands of documents released by the Public Order Emergency Commission, which will ultimately determine whether the government was justified in invoking the act in February.
Neither was called to publicly testify before the commission.
The Liberals faced public calls in January and February to deploy the military as thousands of protesters opposed to vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions gridlocked Ottawa and border crossings with the United States for three weeks.
The inquiry was also shown text messages in recent weeks in which federal Justice Minister David Lametti and then-Alberta premier Jason Kenney raised the prospect of using the military alongside police to clear protesters.
In one text exchange, Lametti and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino raised the idea of using a tank to end the protests. Lametti told the commission last week that the exchange was a joke.
Lametti and Defence Minister Anita Anand instead told the commission that the military was always considered a last resort -- a position that Matthews and Beck echoed in their interview with commission lawyers.
Both defence officials "strongly emphasized that CAF members are not police officers," the summary reads.
"They are trained to use lethal force, not do crowd control. Indeed, the domestic use of military force is, and in their view should always be, seen as a last resort."
Matthews did say he asked defence officials to prepare "for the possibility that the CAF might be called out to intervene in the protests," with a number of scenarios and internal plans subsequently drawn up.
"These plans considered the use of military equipment, infrastructure and deployment of CAF members."
Yet Matthews and Beck said it was clear throughout the planning process that the government and the minister did not want to use the military due to fears "deploying the military in any way would inflame tensions with the protesters."
The two officials "noted that the shadow of the Oka Crisis still looms large," reads the summary.
On July 11, 1990, Quebec provincial police moved in on a barricade near the small town, which is about 50 kilometres northwest of Montreal. The barricade was erected by Indigenous activists to protest the planned expansion of a golf course and development on ancestral land.
After a police officer was killed, the situation escalated into a tense, 78-day standoff between Mohawk and thousands of Canadian soldiers that captured the country's attention and raised enduring concerns about using the military in protests.
Matthews and Beck told the commission lawyers that they shared their concerns about a possible repeat of the crisis with senior officials in other departments, but that the military's actual plans were not shared with them or with Anand.
"It was a necessary planning exercise, but the option of deploying the CAF was never seriously considered."
The military did end up providing limited support to law enforcement efforts, with Ottawa police using the Cartier Drill Hall in downtown Ottawa as a staging area. It also provided 1,200 ration packs to the Parliamentary Protective Service.
The Defence Department and Armed Forces expected and considered requests for military planes to fly police to various parts of the country, but Matthews and Beck said domestic flights ended up being adequate.
Officials also considered whether the military could be used to clear protesters' trucks from downtown Ottawa, the border crossing in Coutts, Alta., and other places where local officials were having trouble getting local tow companies to help.
However, Matthews and Beck said that ultimately wasn't an option as the military's own tow trucks weren't designed for the types of vehicles involved in the protests, and using them would damage not only those vehicles but also any roads driven upon.
There were also concerns that moving the military's tow trucks would represent a "significant logistical effort" and could have "drawn significant attention to themselves and the CAF members operating them."
"Third, the trucks are quite old and require frequent maintenance," the interview summary adds. "DND has plans to replace these trucks."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2022.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that he’s invited premiers to Ottawa for a 'working meeting' to discuss a health-care funding deal, on Feb. 7.
As the minority Liberals plot out their policy moves ahead of the 2023 parliamentary sitting, weighing heavily are commitments Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh that have to be acted on this year in order to uphold the two-party confidence-and-supply deal. Here is what needs to get done to keep the deal alive.
Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem says he thinks Canada is 'turning the corner' on inflation, but he isn't ruling out that the country could enter a 'mild recession.' In an English-language broadcast exclusive interview with CTV National News Ottawa Bureau Chief Joyce Napier, Macklem encouraged Canadians to prepare a 'buffer' to withstand 'tougher times.'
After six weeks, more than 70 witnesses, and the submission of more than 7,000 documents into evidence, the public hearing portion of the Public Order Emergency Commission wrapped up on Friday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sat down with CTV National News Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor Omar Sachedina for a year-end interview to reflect on the political shifts experienced in 2022, and to contemplate the challenges ahead in 2023. Here is a full transcript of the interview.
Like Jacinda Ardern, Justin Trudeau’s early handling of the pandemic was a reassuring communications exercise where harsh isolation measures went down easier with a hefty helping of government support, Don Martin writes in an exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca. 'But like the New Zealand Prime Minister, the Canadian PM's best days are arguably behind him. '
The Standing Committee on Transport gathered Thursday with MPs demanding an explanation for how that highly unusual Canadian winter combination of heavy snow and cold temperatures which delayed or cancelled thousands of post-pandemic reunions. What they got was a gold-medal finger-pointing performance, writes Don Martin in an exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca.
From a more coherent public health and carbon tax position, to cutting the 'Freedom Convoy' connection and smiling more, Pierre Poilievre has seven New Year's resolutions to woo the voters in 2023, writes Don Martin in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca.
Hope was in short supply just ten weeks ago on this 10-kilometre spit of sand at the end of the migration route for tens of thousands of Canadian snowbirds, Don Martin writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca from Florida's Fort Myers Beach. But there are signs, he says, things may return to normal much faster than anyone expected.
The coronavirus remains a global health emergency, the World Health Organization chief said Monday, after a key advisory panel found the pandemic may be nearing an 'inflection point' where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths.
The federal government failed to spend tens of billions of dollars in the last fiscal year on promised programs and services, including new military equipment, affordable housing and support for veterans.
A suicide bomber struck Monday inside a mosque within a police compound in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least 28 people and wounding as many as 150 worshippers, most of them policemen, officials said.
OPS and Ottawa Bylaw officers issued 192 parking tickets and 67 Provincial Offences Notices in downtown Ottawa this weekend, as people gathered marked the one-year anniversary of the 'Freedom Convoy'.
When 1990s suede fringe jackets started making a comeback last year, a U.K.-based vintage clothing company decided to order four tonnes of suede from a supplier in the United States. Along with that shipment came a once-in-a lifetime discovery.
Anti-poverty activists are praising the Quebec basic income program as a good step toward helping people meet their basic needs — but say strict eligibility criteria exclude many of the province’s lowest-income residents.
On a bleak, windswept hillside in northeast Ukraine, three young boys recently discovered a cell phone signal, something difficult to find in their region since Russia invaded their country. and they've set up a makeshift school around the signal.
Anti-poverty activists are praising the Quebec basic income program as a good step toward helping people meet their basic needs — but say strict eligibility criteria exclude many of the province’s lowest-income residents.
An emotional ceremony took place today marking the sixth anniversary of the Quebec City mosque shooting, held for the first time in the same room where many of the victims were killed. Six men died that night: Mamadou Tanou Barry, Ibrahima Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Azzeddine Soufiane and Aboubaker Thabti were gunned down not long after evening prayers at the suburban Quebec City mosque.
OPS and Ottawa Bylaw officers issued 192 parking tickets and 67 Provincial Offences Notices in downtown Ottawa this weekend, as people gathered marked the one-year anniversary of the 'Freedom Convoy'.
Former Mississauga, Ont. mayor Hazel McCallion, nicknamed 'Hurricane Hazel,' has died. She was 101 years old. Premier Doug Ford said McCallion died peacefully at her home early Sunday morning.
Late Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion is being remembered for the many ways she contributed to not only to the city she led for 36 years, but also the province and country following her death on Sunday morning.
A mining corporation apologized for losing a highly radioactive capsule over a 1,400-kilometre stretch of Western Australia, as authorities combed parts of the road looking for the tiny but dangerous substance.
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The killing marks the latest bloodshed in spiralling violence that comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the region.
A suicide bomber struck Monday inside a mosque within a police compound in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least 28 people and wounding as many as 150 worshippers, most of them policemen, officials said.
Armenia pleaded with judges of the United Nations' highest court on Monday to order Azerbaijan to break up a road blockade that is isolating the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, calling the action part of an act of 'ethnic cleansing.'
Former U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson said that President Vladimir Putin didn't seem serious about avoiding war in the days before Russia invaded Ukraine, and at one point told the British leader it would be easy to kill him with a missile.
Turkiye could greenlight Finland's membership in NATO before that of Sweden, if the military alliance and both Nordic countries agree to it, the Turkish foreign minister said Monday.
The federal government failed to spend tens of billions of dollars in the last fiscal year on promised programs and services, including new military equipment, affordable housing and support for veterans.
While RSV and flu cases steadily decline in Canada, the World Health Organization is set to announce on Monday whether it still considers COVID-19 a global health emergency, but one infectious disease specialist says we still need to keep an eye on the coronavirus.
Monday could mark a major milestone in the history of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the World Health Organization stands poised to decide whether or not to declare an end to the global public health emergency.
Russia's embassy in North Korea says the country has eased stringent epidemic controls in capital Pyongyang that were placed during the past five days to slow the spread of respiratory illnesses.
YouTube superstar MrBeast is making the world clearer -- for at least 1,000 people. The content creator's latest stunt is paying for cataract removal for 1,000 people who were blind or near-blind but could not afford the surgery.
What looks like a giant teddy bear’s face peering into space from the surface of Mars is actually a satellite image of some craters and a circular fracture, scientists say.
Nvidia Corp Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang on Tuesday said that the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence will create powerful tools that require legal regulation and social norms that have yet to be worked out.
Actor Annie Wersching, best known for playing FBI agent Renee Walker in the series '24' and providing the voice for Tess in the video game 'The Last of Us' has died. She was 45.
Barrett Strong, one of Motown's founding artists and most gifted songwriters who sang lead on the company's breakthrough single 'Money (That's What I Want)' and later collaborated with Norman Whitfield on such classics as 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine,' 'War' and 'Papa Was a Rollin' Stone,' has died. He was 81.
A solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto is celebrating 50 years of David Ruben Piqtoukun's work. It features more than 60 pieces by the veteran Inuvialuk sculptor.
Dutch consumer electronics and medical equipment maker Philips said Monday it is cutting 6,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years as it revealed a net loss of 1.6 billion euros (US$1.7 billion) in 2022, down from a net profit of 3.3 billion euros last year.
India's Adani Group, run by Asia's richest man, has hit back at a report from U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, calling it 'malicious,' 'baseless' and full of 'selective misinformation.' Shares in the conglomerate have suffered massive losses since Hindenburg issued its report alleging fraud and other malfeasance.
Wall Street was poised to open with lower Monday as attention turns to this week's decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates and a week heavy with big tech earnings.
When 1990s suede fringe jackets started making a comeback last year, a U.K.-based vintage clothing company decided to order four tonnes of suede from a supplier in the United States. Along with that shipment came a once-in-a lifetime discovery.
Pet fish playing a video game in Japan managed to log on to the Nintendo Switch store, change their owner's avatar, set up a Pay Pal account and rack up a credit card bill.
On a bleak, windswept hillside in northeast Ukraine, three young boys recently discovered a cell phone signal, something difficult to find in their region since Russia invaded their country. and they've set up a makeshift school around the signal.
Novak Djokovic climbed into the Rod Laver Arena stands to celebrate his 10th Australian Open championship and record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title Sunday and, after jumping and pumping his fists with his team, he collapsed onto his back, crying.
Nissan and Renault have agreed to equalize the stakes they hold in each other, both sides said Monday, ironing out a source of conflict in the Japan-French auto alliance.
Hyundai cars in Canada don't have the same anti-theft issue compared to those in the United States, a company spokesperson says, following reports that two American auto insurers are refusing to write policies for older models.
Progressive and State Farm, two of America's largest auto insurers, are refusing to write policies in certain cities for some older Hyundai and Kia models that have been deemed too easy to steal, according to one of the insurance companies and media reports.
