Make Ottawa Boring Again
State of Emergency Declared in Response to the Protest-turned-Occupation in the Nation’s Capital
Both Ottawa and Toronto have municipal-level police services in their cities. Both tackled the Freedom Convoy protest arriving in their city significantly differently. One experienced a weekend-long protest with minimal disruptions and the other protest has turned into an occupation. How did the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) get it so wrong?
Over 450 tickets were issued by the OPS since Saturday morning and the announcment on Sunday, however, these actions were not enough to prevent Ottawa’s Mayor Jim Watson declaring a state of emergency on Sunday. For over a week, many people have gathered in Ottawa in support of the anti-mandate protest calling for all COVID-19 mandates to be dropped in the country. What began as a Freedom Convoy protest has turned into an occupation at Parliament Hill and the surrounding area. Infrastructure has been built by the demonstrators and there have been numerous safety concerns reported by businesses and individuals who live in the area. With the state of emergency, the municipality will have access to provindial funding in order to allow for “greater flexibility for the city and businesses to provide essential services for residents and more easily purchase equipment required by front-line workers and first responders.” A serious point of reflection that must be done by both the City of Ottawa and the OPS is, why did it get to this point? There was significant warning about the volume of protestors expected to arrive at Parliament, why were pre-emptive efforts not taken to minimize the disruptions that the City would experience?
The experience in the City of Toronto was much different. About a week after the Ottawa protest began, the Freedom Convoy announced meeting points across the Greater Toronto Area with the intention of cruising to Queen’s Park, where Ontario’s Legislative Building is located, in Downtown Toronto. A key problem with this location for a protest that intends to cause grid-lock within the city is that Queen’s Park is directly north of Toronto’s hospital row where all the major hospital’s in the city are located, including Mount Sinai, Toronto General, SickKids, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto Rehab and Women’s College Hospital.
Toronto Police Service (TPS) began their preparations for the protest in the city by beginning road closures a day before the expected arrival of the Freedom Convoy. The TPS were organized in their execution of their operation in preparing for the protest, minimizing the impacts on the disruption of access to services within the city. The TPS Police Chief James Ramer tweeted that “After a full day demonstrating, the trucks and protesters who had blocked Avenue & Bloor have been safely moved out. We appreciated the cooperation as we opened & returned the intersection for safe use by residents & businesses. Officers will remain in the area over the weekend.”
The two very different outcomes in Toronto and Ottawa highlight the importance of the timing and effectiveness of the policy responses by both city’s and their police services. Had Ottawa had a more organized approach prior to the arrival of the protestors, perhaps they wouldn’t be under a state of emergency almost two weeks later.
