The Ottawa Police Service said its claim the Freedom Convoy had weapons referred not to firearms, but tire irons and work tools. Patricia Ferguson, acting deputy chief of police, acknowledged officers did not find any guns in convoy vehicles..“There’s been a focus on guns in most of these conversations, but a weapon can be a knife, it can be a tire iron, it can be a number of different things,” Ferguson testified at the Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency..“Can you tell us how many and what types of weapons were seized by police during the occupation?” asked Senator Jane Cordy (N.S.)..“I can tell you a weapon can be many things,” replied Ferguson..“What types of weapons were you seeing?” asked Senator Cordy..“Well, all manner,” replied Ferguson. “A weapon is any object that can be used to threaten or assault somebody with. Knives, I think, tools, tire irons — those types of things were in the mix.”.Ferguson did not say how many tire irons or tools were seized by police and did not “have a solid number” on firearms held by Freedom Convoy protesters, but acknowledged none were ever seen..“In terms of the amount of guns, if that’s what people are focusing on, I don’t have a solid number on that,” said Ferguson. “There were threats or intimations that guns were in vehicles. We did not search every vehicle we cleared as we had to move through the city fairly methodically and quickly for the safety of our officers and everyone involved.”.“Many of those vehicles were not searched,” testified Ferguson. “As such we don’t know if there really were guns in them or not.”.No police reported seeing any gun at the protest outside Parliament Hill..Superintendent Patrick Morris, commander of the Intelligence Bureau of Ontario Provincial Police that tracked the Freedom Convoy, testified October 19 at the Public Order Emergency Commission no evidence of firearms was found..“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.”.“The lack of violent crime was shocking,” added Morris. “I mean, even in the arrest and charges considering the whole thing in totality.”
