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Emergencies Act inquiry: Security officials raised ‘concern’ about convoy trucks near Hill

Click to play video: 'Emergencies Act Inquiry: City of Ottawa manager discusses difficulty of towing heavy trucks'
Emergencies Act Inquiry: City of Ottawa manager discusses difficulty of towing heavy trucks
Ottawa city manager Steve Kanellakos testified Monday during the Emergencies Act Inquiry about the issues city staff faced when trying to find tow truck operators to remove large trucks away from Parliament Hill. "It could be quite conflictual when you're trying to take someone's truck and people are still around the truck," Kanellakos said as he listed a number of reasons for the difficulties – Oct 17, 2022

New evidence shows the Parliamentary Protective Service took issue with the City of Ottawa’s plan to move “Freedom Convoy” protesters’ semi trucks out of residential neighbourhoods and onto the street in front of Parliament Hill.

The security service feared that Wellington Street would become a “parking lot,” the city’s top bureaucrat said in a written summary of a statement given to legal counsel ahead of a public inquiry.

The document provided to a commission investigating the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to clear protesters sheds more light on a deal Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said the city had struck with convoy organizers.

City manager Steve Kanellakos said in the statement that he wasn’t sure if the protective service was consulted on the plan.

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Click to play video: 'Emergencies Act inquiry reveals how city of Ottawa failed to tackle convoy despite warnings'
Emergencies Act inquiry reveals how city of Ottawa failed to tackle convoy despite warnings

Kanellakos said he believed that a superintendent of the Parliamentary Protective Service reached out to Ottawa police, and that the security force “expressed concern” with the street being “turned into a parking lot of 200-plus trucks.”

The proposed deal came as anger mounted from residents who were fed up with the around-the-clock noise brought by the February protests.

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