Negotiator behind deal with Freedom Convoy says Ottawa was too quick to use emergency powers

The man who negotiated on the City of Ottawa's behalf with Tamara Lich and other organizers of the Freedom Convoy says an agreement for truckers to leave the city's residential streets wasn't given enough time to play out before the federal government used its emergency powers to quell the weeks-long occupation.

"This is a black mark on Canadian history," Dean French said of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, just a day after word of an agreement between the city and truckers became public. 

"History will show this was a total overreaction."

Starting in late January, protesters rallied against pandemic restrictions and blocked neighbourhood access and main arteries around Parliament Hill by clogging the streets with trucks and other vehicles.

Triggering the act gave authorities sweeping temporary powers, including the ability to freeze the bank accounts and credit cards of protesters and compel tow truck companies to help them clear out vehicles. Attending any event deemed an unlawful assembly, such as the Ottawa convoy protest, also became illegal.

Last week, unsealed cabinet meeting minutes revealed Trudeau took the unprecedented measure of invoking the act only a day after being told by his national security adviser of a potential "breakthrough" in the crisis.

The office of the public safety minister later said the minutes referred to negotiations led by the city that were "ultimately unsuccessful" after being "disavowed" by many associated with the convoy.

The government considered the outcome of those negotiations "as a factor in the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act," the minister's office added.

French, who resigned from his job as chief of staff to Ontario Premier Doug Ford in 2019 following a controversy about patronage appointments, said dozens of trucks were starting to move from residential areas when the Emergencies Act was invoked.

"Why wouldn't Trudeau's cabinet have waited on the Sunday night [Feb. 13] to say, '[Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson], a very credible, respected mayor, has an agreement. Let's just wait two or three days to see if this peaceful resolution works. If it's not real, then let's put down the hammer,'" French told Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos on Wednesday.

French said he approached Watson about helping to resolve the convoy crisis in Ottawa on Feb. 10.

By Feb. 11, he said, he was meeting in person with Lich and several other convoy organizers over pizza at a downtown Ottawa hotel.

"We were done the deal that night, essentially," French said. 

According to a Feb. 12 letter from Watson to Lich, the agreement called for all protest trucks to be removed within 72 hours from residential areas and from the parking lot of a baseball stadium. They were to move to Wellington Street just south of Parliament Hill.