PUBLIC DELEGATIONS
- BILL EWANICK - E-wah-nik (HE / HIM)
- FARNAZ FARHANG
- MANDI P
- PETER KNOWLTON
- LYRA EVANS
- CHRIS LEE
- JULIA HAMER (SHE / THEY)
- ROBIN BROWNE, 613-819 Black Hub (HE / HIM)
- SAM HERSH
- ANAMARIA
- RYAN TUCKER
- JONATHAN CARLSON (HE / HIM)
- BRIAN LATOUR
- M. WELLER
- SARP KIZIR
WHEREAS the invocation of the federal Emergencies Act automatically causes an Inquiry “to be held into the circumstances that led to the declaration being issued and the measures taken for dealing with the emergency”, and which is to commence within 60 days of the revocation of the declaration of the emergency, and
WHEREAS, on February 7, 2022, Ottawa City Council adopted a motion to complete an independent evaluation of the response to the occupation of the City of Ottawa with a view to bettering the overall governmental response to planning, coordination, communications, and sharing of resources - including their deployment - and requested that the Ottawa Police Services Board take part in this evaluation; and
WHEREAS on February 24, 2022, the Ottawa Police Services Board adopted a motion directing the Board’s Executive Director to work with the City of Ottawa’s Procurement Office to identify an independent reviewer able to assess the overall response (to the unlawful convoy protests) and that the Executive Director bring forward a report to the Board for its approval of the Independent Reviewer and framework of the review, including cooperation with other ongoing reviews, to the March meeting of the Board; and
WHEREAS there is considerable benefit to the City of Ottawa Council and Ottawa Police Services if their respective reviews are completed in a timely fashion to facilitate the consideration and incorporation of lessons learned into the preparations for Canada Day 2022; and
WHEREAS the City of Ottawa’s Auditor General is independent of the administrations of both the Ottawa Police Service and the City of Ottawa, and has access to the resources to undertake and expedite the completion of these reviews in a timely and thorough fashion; and
WHEREAS the most expeditious and cost-effective way to meet both Ottawa City Council’s and the Ottawa Police Services Board’s objectives would be to invite the City of Ottawa’s Auditor General to lead the City's and Police Services' Board’s reviews;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Ottawa Police Services Board formally extend an invitation to the Auditor General to lead the review of the Ottawa Police Service’s overall response, including defining the scope and work plan approach, and that the Ottawa Police Services Board recommend that City Council also request the Auditor General to conduct the City of Ottawa’s review, to ensure that any recommendations can be considered and seamlessly incorporated into the joint planning that occurs in preparation for Canada Day 2022; and,
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Auditor General be invited to consider including in the scope of their review the following areas:
- Incident Command Structure;
- Community Engagement;
- Board role and responsibilities to handle major events and crisis management;
- Intelligence gathering and analysis;
- Operational approaches;
- Frameworks for planning;
- Communications, internal and external;
- Operational readiness;
- Partnerships with police, law enforcement, intelligence agencies and emergency services;
- Resources and resource management;
- Enforcement strategies;
- Whether systemic issues within the OPS such as racism or anti-vaccination sentiment compromised the OPS response; and,
- How the OPS’s response to this crisis compared to their response to other demonstrations in recent years.