OTTAWA –
Hearings as a part of the Public Order Emergency Commission’s nationwide inquiry into the federal authorities’s unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act start Thursday.
Ahead of the general public testimony Commissioner Paul Rouleau has launched an inventory of 65 “anticipated” witnesses, and it consists of convoy organizers, authorities officers, native residents, regulation enforcement officers and different key gamers.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who is on the record of anticipated witnesses — invoked the Emergencies Act for 9 days in February to assist dismantle the “Freedom Convoy” protest that blockaded some border crossings and gridlocked downtown Ottawa for weeks. CTVNews.ca breaks down who is on the docket to testify over the following six weeks of hearings, and why their testimony is being sought.
CONVOY ORGANIZERS, KEY PROTESTORS
Tamara Lich — Lich was a central determine all through the protests. A lead organizer who travelled throughout the nation as a part of the convoy, Lich was arrested simply days after the Emergencies Act was invoked, forward of police transferring in to filter the vans and protesters in Ottawa. There was outcry and a flood of assist from protestors when Lich breached the circumstances of her bail in June, however she was as soon as once more launched with new bail circumstances in late July. She, together with different convoy organizers, has requested that $450,000 in donations acquired in the course of the protests be unfrozen to pay for them to keep in Ottawa and testify on the public inquiry.
Patrick King — King was a protestor and conspiracy theorist who livestreamed his arrest from his truck in February. Court paperwork obtained by CTV News confirmed King was in frequent contact with the opposite convoy organizers, regardless of denials of his participation. He was arrested on a number of prices, together with intimidation, counselling intimidation, and obstructing police. King was launched on bail in mid-July.
Benjamin Dichter — Truck driver and convoy organizer Dichter was one of many motion’s official spokespeople.
Tom Marazzo — Marazzo was a convoy spokesperson and the chief of Veterans 4 Freedom, which additionally organized rallies in Ottawa throughout Canada Day.
Chris Barber — Barber was a truck driver and convoy organizer who was arrested on Feb. 17 on a number of prices. He was launched on bond with circumstances. He is expected to go to trial in Sept. 2023.
Brigitte Belton — Belton is a trucker and protestor, and one of many named defendants within the class-action lawsuit on behalf of Ottawa residents and companies.
James Bauder —Bauder is a convoy protest organizer and the founding father of Canada Unity, an anti-mandate group that was concerned in a lot of the preliminary group of the protests. He has posted a number of conspiracy theories on-line. He was arrested in Ottawa in February and launched on a promise to seem later in courtroom.
Steeve Charland —Charland is a protestor from Grenville, Que., who was arrested almost per week after the demonstrations had been dismantled on prices of mischief and counselling to commit mischief.
Marco Van Huigenbos — Marco Van Huigenbos was one of many organizers of the Coutts, Alta., blockade that restricted entry to the border with the United States.
Ottawa City Councillor for Somerset Ward Catherine McKenney participates in a “community safety walk” with Centretown residents in response to a protest towards COVID-19 restrictions in Ottawa that is persevering with into its second week, on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
KEY OTTAWA PLAYERS, RESIDENTS AND ELECTED OFFICIALS
Zexi Li — Zexi Li is the downtown Ottawa resident who launched the class-action lawsuit on behalf of residents and companies within the metropolis that had been impacted by the three-week protests. The lawsuit is looking for greater than $300 million in damages.
Jim Watson — Outgoing Ottawa Mayor Watson referred to as a state of emergency within the metropolis, made repeated requires an finish to the protests, and referred to as the state of affairs ‘completely out of control’ earlier than the Emergencies Act was invoked.
Catherine McKenney — Ottawa City Councilor and mayoral hopeful McKenney represents Somerset Ward, which encompasses many of the Centretown neighbourhood and the world round Parliament Hill, the place nearly all of the protesters stayed for 3 weeks. McKenney was a vocal advocate for stronger police enforcement and took to the streets to doc the expertise from the angle of a downtown resident.
Mathieu Fleury — Ottawa City Councilor Fleury represents the Rideau-Vanier Ward, which additionally included elements of the protest zone and was closely impacted by the demonstrations.
Steve Kanellakos — Kanellakos is Ottawa’s metropolis supervisor. In June, he informed the parliamentary committee that’s wanting into the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act, independently of the general public inquiry, that whereas he didn’t request the Emergencies Act, in a separate memo he said it offered police with further mandatory powers.
Serge Arpin — Arpin is the chief of workers to the mayor of Ottawa.
Diane Deans — Ottawa City Councilor and former chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board, Deans was ousted from her place as chair of the police board in mid-February after she appointed an interim police chief with out session.
Nathalie Carrier — Executive director of ZAC Quartier Vanier Business Improvement Association, which represents greater than 466 property and enterprise homeowners in Ottawa’s Vanier neighbourhood.
Kevin McHale — Executive director of the Sparks Street Business Improvement Association, which represents companies alongside Sparks Street within the downtown core, some of the closely impacted elements of town by the trucker protest. Sparks Street is throughout the “Occupation Zone” as designated by the class-action lawsuit.
Police officers stroll on Wellington Street in entrance of Parliament Hill because it is away from vans and protesters, after police took motion to finish to a protest, which began in opposition to obligatory COVID-19 vaccine mandates and grew right into a broader anti-government demonstration and occupation, on its twenty third day, in Ottawa, Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS
Steve Bell — Ottawa Police interim chief Steve Bell took over from Peter Sloly in the course of the protests in February after the latter resigned. He informed a parliamentary committee wanting into the usage of the Emergencies Act that it was not explicitly requested by police forces.
Peter Sloly — Sloly is the previous Ottawa Police chief, who resigned in the course of the protests amid heavy criticism that OPS was not doing sufficient to dismantle the protests and evict the truckers from town.
Patricia Ferguson — Ferguson is the appearing deputy chief of the Ottawa Police Service, a task she held in the course of the convoy, usually collaborating in OPS press conferences.
Robert Drummond & Robert Bernier — Drummond is an OPS Constable and Bernier is an OPS workers sergeant.
David Vigneault — Vigneault is the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which investigates potential safety threats to Canada, and in the course of the protests labored with regulation enforcement to present intelligence in regards to the demonstrators and assist assess the danger stage.
Michelle Tessier — Tessier is the deputy director of operations for CSIS.
Marie-Hèlene Chayer — Chayer is the chief director of the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre at CSIS
Brenda Lucki — Lucki is the commissioner of the RCMP, which was concerned in policing the weeks of protests and performed a key enforcement function at border blockades and within the eventual crackdown on Ottawa protesters.
Michael Duheme — Duheme is the RCMP’s deputy commissioner for federal policing.
Curtis Zablocki — Zablocki is the RCMP deputy commissioner for Okay Division in Alberta
John Ossowski — Ossowski was the president of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) in the course of the convoy protests, however retired in June.
Jason Crowley — Interim deputy chief for the Windsor Police Service
In addition to these regulation enforcement officers, there are a number of Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers on the record, together with OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique, Craig Abrams, Carson Pardy, Pat Morris, Russell Lucas, Marcel Beaudin and Dana Earley.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti and President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair stand behind Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he declares the Emergencies Act will probably be invoked to cope with protests, Monday, February 14, 2022 in Ottawa. Trudeau says he has invoked the Emergencies Act to carry to an finish antigovernment blockades he describes as unlawful and never about peaceable protest. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — The prime minister mentioned shortly after invoking the Emergencies Act that it was “time-limited and targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate.” He reiterated Tuesday the act was used as a “last resort.”
Minister Chrystia Freeland — Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland introduced after the invocation of the Emergencies Act that the financial institution accounts of some protestors had been frozen.
Minister Marco Mendicino — Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has repeatedly defended the usage of the Emergencies Act and insisted on it being crucial to ending the trucker protests. He has been accused of deceptive Canadians by saying a number of instances regulation enforcement officers requested for the Emergencies Act to be invoked, earlier than many mentioned at a parliamentary committee inquiry they’d not explicitly requested use of the act.
Minister Bill Blair — Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair referred to as the protests and blockades a “critical situation” earlier than the Emergencies Act was invoked. He later referred to as the measures “effective” and “critical.” He informed a parliamentary committee he didn’t hear police ask the federal authorities to invoke the Emergencies Act, calling it a “decision of government,” however including the police “were clearly having difficulties” restoring regulation and order.
Minister Omar Alghabra — Canada’s Transport Minister mentioned in January, two days after the trucker protests started in Ottawa, that the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers had not had an influence on the quantity of vans on the border.
Minister Anita Anand — National Defence Minister.
Minister David Lametti — Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada.
Minister Dominic LeBlanc — Intergovernmental Affairs Minister.
Michael Keenan — Canada’s deputy minister with Transport Canada
Christian Dea — Transport Canada’s chief economist.
Michael Sabia — Canada’s deputy finance minister. The cities of Windsor, Ont., and Ottawa have mentioned the protests and blockades value their municipalities thousands and thousands of {dollars} in misplaced income and policing wants.
Rhys Mendes — Mendes is on secondment from the Bank of Canada to Canada’s division of finance, the place he’s working as an assistant deputy minister for the financial coverage department.
Isabelle Jacques— An assistant deputy minister in Canada’s division of finance for the monetary sector coverage department.
Cindy Termorshuizen — Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Joe Comartin — Former MP and present consul common of Canada in Detroit, Michigan.
Jody Thomas — National safety and intelligence adviser to the prime minister, Privy Council Office.
Jacquie Bogden — Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet (Emergency Preparedness and COVID Recovery), Privy Council Office
Janice Charette — Clerk of the Privy Council, secretary to the Cabinet.
Nathalie Drouin — Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council, affiliate secretary to the Cabinet.
Rob Stewart — Deputy Minister of Public Safety
Dominic Rochon — Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for Public Safety Canada
Anti-mandate demonstrators collect as a truck convoy blocks the freeway the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
NON-OTTAWA ELECTED OFFICIALS
Drew Dilkens —Dilkens is the mayor of Windsor, Ont., the place protestors blockaded the Ambassador Bridge linking Canada to the United States for almost per week.
Jim Willett —Willett is the mayor of Coutts, Alta., the place protestors blockaded the border with the United States. Willett visited with protestors and informed The Canadian Press they had been ‘certainly not’ as dangerous as some believed, however he additionally urged them to finish the blockades.
Marlin Degrand — Solicitor General of Alberta.
Mario Di Tommaso — Deputy Solicitor General of Ontario.
Ian Freeman — Assistant deputy minister at Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation.
With information from CTV’s Glen McGregor, Mackenzie Gray, and Rachel Aiello