Roundup: Exit the police chief

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It never rains, but it pours, and yesterday the twist in the plot was that the police chief suddenly resigned his position. And while the immediate thought was that hey, someone is actually taking responsibility for their failure, it turns out that no, this was a “human resources issue,” likely related to bullying, harassment, and volatile behaviour around senior police leadership the longer this occupation drags on. And now we have an acting police chief at a time when the Ottawa Police Service is the police of jurisdiction during a crisis situation and under the aegis of the Emergencies Act, coordinating with the OPP and RCMP.

The other plot twist was that the mayor’s contact for his “backchannel negotiations” with the occupier leadership was Dean French, the lacrosse-loving chaos agent who used to be Doug Ford’s chief of staff. Mayor Watson said that French approached him about making contact, and Watson figured “anything to help,” rather than seeing the giant red flag and telling French to take a hike and never come back. So yeah, it’s like everyone is making the worst possible decisions, or we keep invoking Tucker’s Law.

Emergencies Act

Because we are still trying to sort out what all is happening around the invocation of the Act, here are some explainers from Naomi Claire Lazar and Lyle Skinner. As well, some observations about how it is being employed by the government, law professor Paul Daly has questions about some of the legal language.

The actual orders weren’t finally posted until 9 PM last week, which is when the rules actually went into effect, so good job on your timeliness there, guys. We now know that they are using the thread of political violence as their test for what meets the Act’s threshold, essentially calling it terrorism, which then raises the question of how this meets that particular threshold. The orders prohibit bringing food, fuel or children to the protest site, under threat of a $5000 fine or up to five years in prison—but we’ll see if police actually enforce that, as they have not been around the fuel convoy to the site.

As for the financial provisions brought into force, there are concerns that they could be a serious overreach, particularly if it affects an occupier’s ability to obtain financial services ever again. The occupiers, meanwhile, are trying to pivot to cryptocurrency, as though that will put them beyond the reach of government. (It won’t).

Grifter Occupation: Day 20

It sounds like a countdown is on for the police action against the occupation, because there is no patience for it to go beyond Friday, before all of the grievance tourists show up again for the long weekend. With the interim police chief installed, there is an joint command centre to coordinate with the RCMP and OPP officers who have joined the OPS to end the occupation, along with Emergency Act powers to compel tow truck drivers to actually do the work (with compensation). But it’s going to be tough going to move an entrenched occupation out, with children in the mix as human shields. There is the possibility that the enhanced financial tools unlocked with the Emergencies Act will force more of the occupying drivers to move on before things get too bad for them, but things need to come to a head, and soon.

And if you haven’t read it yet, Rolling Stone takes the definitive look at the “Ram Ranch Resistance” that is being used by counter-protesters to troll the occupiers.

Good reads:

  • The blockades in Southern Alberta are now ended, with criminal charges around the weapons found, and yet the handshakes and hugs with RCMP raise questions.
  • Starting February 28th, fully vaccinated travellers will only need a negative rapid test to get into Canada rather than a PRC test, with more simplified quarantine rules.
  • In its latest report, NSICOP identifies vulnerabilities in the government’s systems and networks that make us vulnerable to cyberattacks.
  • Another 54 potential unmarked graves have been located near another former Saskatchewan residential school.
  • Pierre Poilievre continues to offer succour and support to the occupiers, while forced-birth groups are not enthused with his mixed voting record on abortion.
  • Jen Gerson visits the blockades in Southern Alberta, before they broke up, and gets a sense of those occupiers, and their organiser is…divorced from reality.
  • Althia Raj makes the salient point that the Emergencies Act may be for naught if the police still don’t do their jobs and enforce the law.
  • For Flag Day, Colby Cosh muses on the various ways the flag has been used symbolically over the past year, including the current occupation in Ottawa.
  • My column notes that by invoking the Emergencies Act, Trudeau has made himself the centre of accountability for this occupation as opposed to everyone who failed.

Odds and ends:

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