RCMP was prepared for a costly month-long Freedom Convoy siege in Ottawa, even after cabinet invoked the Emergencies Act, records show. Internal memos indicate police booked more than a million dollars’ worth of hotel rooms and cross-Canada charter flights, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“We are currently working on several urgent requirements to assist with the blockades in Ottawa,” read a February 16 memo. “It’s quite possible we may have urgent, last-minute requirements this week for air charter services.”.The Royal Canadian mounted Police were prepared to spend up to $400,000 on charter aircraft to bring in police reinforcements. The Mounties also booked $1.3 million worth of hotel rooms at a Marriott hotel near RCMP headquarters in Ottawa..“The department has received a request from the RCMP to exercise its emergency contract delegation and award a contract on their behalf for hotel accommodations to support their efforts to manage the response to the truck convoy currently occupying downtown Ottawa,” the Department of Public Works wrote in a February 18 email. “This requirement is urgent.”.The Marriott contract was to run from February 28 to March 31. Cabinet invoked the Emergencies Act February 14 and suspended it on the 23rd. The hotel rooms were never filled. Marriot management agreed to waive all charges..The records do not explain why RCMP management expected a lengthy police action even after emergency powers were invoked. However, the Mounties in a February 14 briefing note Truckers Convoy And Protective Services falsely claimed protesters had guns..“Intelligence information suggests that convoy protesters are beginning to weaponize themselves,” said the briefing note. “Officers are constantly monitoring the shift in behaviour and will respond accordingly.”.At that time, the RCMP had “between 210 and 250 uniformed members” outside Parliament. “The RCMP also continues to have approximately 350 members deployed daily in support of our protective mandate,” wrote staff..No firearms or explosives were ever found in Freedom Convoy trucks outside Parliament despite cabinet rumours. “It could have been deadly,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters February 16..The Toronto Star on March 19 quoted an unnamed police source claiming truckers hid loaded shotguns inside their vehicles. “Fears that there were weapons inside some of the trucks proved prescient,” reported the Star. “A police source said loaded shotguns were found.” The story quoted Mendicino, who said, “it was nothing short of miraculous that nobody was seriously injured.”.Another cabinet member, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller, on March 19 retweeted the Star story with a quote: “Was the Freedom Convoy really about vaccine mandates or something darker?”.The story, “Inside The Convoy,” was later dismissed by the Ottawa Police Service as false. Police in March 24 testimony at the Commons public safety committee acknowledged there were neither loaded shotguns nor firearms of any kind found inside trucks parked at Parliament. “.This is misinformation,” Conservative MP Dane Lloyd (Sturgeon River-Parkland, Alta.) told the committee.
