The Freedom Convoy protest “felt” violent though it was not technically violent, interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell said yesterday at the Public Order Emergency Commission. While under cross-examination by the protesters’ lawyer, Bell acknowledged his repeated reference to the “violence” of the convoy was not meant literally..“Not the Criminal Code definition of violence, but the violence they felt by having excessive horns blared, by having trucks run 24/7,” Bell told the Commission..“So the violence they ‘felt,’ not actual violence, is that what you’re saying?” asked Brendan Miller, counsel for the Freedom Convoy. “That is correct,” replied Bell..According to Blacklock's Reporter, Police figures show in the first weeks of the protest from January 28 to February 15, a total 16 people were charged in downtown Ottawa, including five arrested for assault. .“A total five violent offences charged,” said Miller. “You’d agree with me that is not unprecedented violence, is it?” Replied Chief Bell: “As I defined violence, it wasn’t strictly Criminal Code violence.".Miller asked Bell if he was describing any form of physical assaults. "Physical assaults do contribute to what I’m describing. I was specifically describing the violence that our community felt as a result of the culmination of actions the occupiers engaged in," Bell responded..Superintendent Patrick Morris, commander of the Intelligence Bureau of Ontario Provincial Police, testified October 19 the Freedom Convoy was so peaceful he found it shocking. “The lack of violent crime was shocking,” said Morris. “I mean, even in the arrest and charges considering the whole thing in totality.”.“I want to be clear on this,” said Morris. “We produced no intelligence to indicate these individuals would be armed. There has been a lot of hyperbole around that.”.Truckers’ Counsel Miller yesterday said he will introduce evidence of abusive police practices against Freedom Convoy members. “Some who were arrested upon their release were essentially kidnapped by Ottawa Police Service officers, driven out of town in the middle of February winter by Ottawa Police Service officers and left in various rural areas and parking lots outside of town with no shelter or resources,” said Miller..“One of them was a municipal parking lot where the trucks were being towed to,” said Miller. “That parking lot doesn’t have a building to drop them off at. It doesn’t have a phone. It doesn’t have any of that.”.“I would imagine it would need to have a phone because you have to be able to call your lawyers,” interjected Bell..“Well, I can tell you it didn’t,” said Miller. “These people were driven out there. They were already told they weren’t charged, they were being released, but they were driven and forced outside of Ottawa, in the outskirts, and dropped off in the snow.”
