An audit of the city of Ottawa's response to the 'Freedom Convoy' demonstration has found that the city was not adequately prepared to respond to the major protest, largely because of a lack of communication.
The audit, performed by the city's auditor general Nathalie Gougeon, concluded that the city's emergency coordination team was not engaged prior to the convoy's arrival, which delayed the city's ability to plan and prepare for the protest. It also found intelligence shared by the Ottawa Police Service was insufficient, and there were inadequate attempts to engage the city's traffic management experts in planning for the impacts on downtown streets.
"Once the magnitude of the event, the possibility of high risk and the likelihood of significant impacts to the City were known, the OEM should have been notified by both the OPS and other City departments who were contacted," the audit concluded. "Had the OEM been engaged sooner, they likely would have started centralized planning prior to January 25, 2022.
"Despite the OPS’s plan being based on information that was constantly changing and the fact that the behaviour of incoming protesters was unpredictable, sharing the established traffic plan, when it was in a sufficiently finalized state, would have enabled the City to be better prepared," the audit found.
Part of the issue was due to the constraints on the police chief during the protest, but the audit found no evidence collective discussions amongst control group members to establish overall objectives and provide direction on City priorities and strategies.
"Residents felt ignored and abandoned by the City as a result of the lack of enforcement and communication."CITY UNSURE IF INJUNCTION WOULD HELP BEFORE PRIVATE INJUNCTION GRANTED "In the first two weeks of the protest, the City was concerned about submitting an injunction application for a number of reasons, including: belief that there was limited value in applying for an injunction for which OPS did not have the resources to enforce and concern that an injunction could have negative consequences or could negatively impact the activities of police," the audit found.
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