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OTTAWA — The “Freedom Convoy” had gridlocked Canada’s capital metropolis for greater than per week earlier than the native police pressure got here up with a plan for what to do about it, a senior Ottawa police officer mentioned Thursday at a public inquiry into the Liberal authorities’s use of the Emergencies Act.

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Appearing Deputy Chief Patricia Ferguson mentioned the Ottawa police had assumed the protesters wouldn’t stay past the primary weekend and relied at first on a boilerplate plan that had been used for different downtown occasions involving massive crowds, akin to Canada Day celebrations.

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The Ottawa police made no contingency plans, she mentioned.

In hindsight, Ferguson mentioned she would have given extra credibility to early warnings from the Ontario Provincial Police and different intelligence suggesting the group deliberate to remain for weeks.

Police had been conscious of these warnings, however they weighed it towards different intelligence and moved forward with their normal occasions plan, she mentioned.

The one contingency plan in place targeted fully on bringing in some further officers for the weekend and there have been no plans to cope with the chance that protesters would stick round.

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It wasn’t till Sunday night, when the vans and protesters didn’t filter out, that police started to appreciate their mistake.

“We had been speaking about demobilization plan up till that time, and clearly that was not the plan that was going to be required,” she mentioned Thursday.

When weekend got here and went, that’s when police realized they wanted to “pivot,” however arising with a plan B proved to be a battle, Ferguson mentioned, partly as a result of the service didn’t have officers in place who had been targeted solely on the planning.

The opposite drawback Ferguson highlighted was that employees had been already exhausted after working the earlier week and thru the weekend.

“I might describe us as being on our knees and having run a marathon for the final two and a half years, and it felt like they’d moved the end line 100 yards … and given us 200 kilos to hold to get to the tip,” she informed the Public Order Emergency Fee, which is scheduled to carry public hearings in downtown Ottawa by way of to Nov. 25.

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“Staffing was, I might say, our #1 Achilles heel in all of this.”

Because the service tried to give you a means ahead, Ferguson mentioned the chief of Ottawa police on the time, Peter Sloly, began directing operations outdoors of the chain of command.

Ferguson mentioned the plan was not outlined on paper till Feb. 9, greater than per week after the protesters arrived.

In her notes from a gathering, she recorded that Sloly mentioned of anybody who undermined the plan: “I’ll crush them”

“I used to be aghast on the remark,” mentioned Ferguson, who had arguments with the chief in regards to the aggressive nature of “the plan” and advocated for negotiating with protesters.

The federal Liberals declared an emergency below the act on Feb. 14, granting police extraordinary short-term powers in an try to clear the protesters occupying downtown streets outdoors Parliament Hill.