Barber, Lich Trial: Ottawa Police Chief Blocked Plan to Shrink Convoy Protest’s Size, Commander Testifies

Ottawa Police Service Inspector Russell Lucas appears before the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa on Oct. 25, 2022. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA—On the second day of the trial of Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, an Ottawa Police Service (OPS) commander testified that negotiations between the police liaison team (PLT) and convoy organizers to “shrink the footprint” of the protest was blocked by the police chief at the time.

“The initial plan was we wanted to shrink the footprint, bring them back all into Wellington Street, which would mean I did not need as many officers to manage traffic and we could focus more on dealing with the core issues,” Operations Support Inspector Russell Lucas said at the Ottawa Courthouse on Sept. 6.

“But the problem was, the PLT was working on these different agreements with them, [and] when I put up the proposal forward, up through the chain of command, the direction feedback was ‘we’re not giving them one inch.’ So we weren’t able to shrink the footprint. That undermined the ability of PLT to do their job.”

Insp. Lucas said the blocking of any agreement to move the protesters’ vehicles from residential areas to Wellington Street, the street in front of Parliament Hill, made the PLT’s job of negotiating between the police and protesters “extremely difficult.”

Not being able to shrink the protest’s footprint contributed to OPS resources being “stretched incredibly thin,” he added.

According to Insp. Lucas, while he personally supported negotiations to bring all vehicles of the protesters to Wellington Street, the request was denied by the executive office of then-Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly. Insp. Lucas maintained that Wellington Street was the best location for the protesters’ vehicles to park because it was out of the way of transport routes and it was also “where they wanted to be.”

While around 60 percent of the protesters left after the first weekend, the large geographical area covered by the remaining protesters meant police team leads had to make “independent decisions on how to best use resources to ensure public safety,” Insp. Lucas said.

Insp. Lucas served as incident commander of the OPS during the Freedom Convoy protest, which was initially started in response to COVID-19 vaccination mandates for truckers crossing the Canada-U.S. border. In addition to the main gathering in Ottawa, similar protests were held at several Canada-U.S. border crossings.

On Feb. 14, 2022, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time since the act’s creation in 1988, giving the government greater powers to end the protest, including the ability to ban travel to specified zones and to freeze protesters’ bank accounts.

Ms. Lich and Mr. Barber were two of the lead organizers of the trucker protests that took place in January and February 2022. The two are charged with counselling to commit mischief, counselling to disobey a court order, counselling to obstruct police, and mischief that interferes with the use and enjoyment of property. The trial is expected to last 16 days.

‘Exceeded Our Expectations’

Insp. Lucas said that on Jan. 21, 2022, shortly after he became OPS incident commander, intelligence suggested that five different convoys were approaching Ottawa. But by Jan. 28, the number of convoys had grown to 13, which “changed the dynamics” of OPS planning.

“To try and get a good concept of the true numbers that would be attending was challenging,” Insp. Lucas said, adding that estimates of the number of vehicles were based on social media interactions with convoy organizers, discussions with various police agencies, and the Ontario Provincial Police’s Hendon intelligence reports.

Insp. Lucas said the original intelligence reports indicated there would be up to 100 vehicles per province attending the protest, but the true numbers “greatly exceeded that.” By the end of the first weekend, the number of vehicles participating in the protest was “well over 5,000.”

When the convoy arrived in Ottawa on Jan. 29, the OPS planned to divert many of the vehicles to a small segment of Queen Elizabeth Drive, the parking lot at the ball diamond on Coventry Road, and the former Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway. Insp. Lucas said this traffic plan could have accommodated up to 2,000 vehicles.

“Needless to say, the event exceeded our expectations,” he said.