A witness at the Freedom Convoy inquiry testified she heard Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly tell a business group he was scared of the truckers. Sloly later compared the protest outside Parliament to the 2021 storming of the US Capitol that injured 138 police officers..“I remember the Chief saying at one point, ‘You guys are scared, I get it. I’m scared too,’” testified Nathalie Carrier, executive director of the Vanier Business Improvement Association. Carrier said the Chief made the remark during a February 1 teleconference..Carrier, choking back tears, told the Public Order Emergency Commission she and others on the call were startled by the Chief’s remark. “These are people we rely on,” said Carrier..“I remember being scared personally because I remember the Chief saying at one point, ‘You guys are scared, I get it. I’m scared too,’” said Carrier. “And I thought, if the chief of police is scared something much bigger is happening here than a protest. That personally scared me and I think a lot of us on that call were shaken.”.Blacklock's Reporter said Sloly’s lawyer Tom Curry challenge the testimony. “You can imagine your statement that he said he was personally scared, I just have to tell you he is going to say he didn’t say that,” said Curry. "At no time did Chief Sloly say he was scared or frightened.".“No. I think it was definitely in the intention that you’re saying," Carrier replied. "I don’t think it was, ‘I’m terrified and I don’t know what I’m doing.’ That’s not what I’m implying. What I’m implying is he was very candid with us. We had gone through a very difficult weekend. He was very candid with us and he I think was relating that he, too was scared.".Carrier later told the Commission she specifically recalled the Chief’s remark because it was so unnerving. “At times like this in what was considered for us at least a crisis, a lot of people in Ottawa a crisis, you turn to your leaders to have a plan and to be stable,” said Carrier..“I remember very specifically feeling, and I will say feeling for the sake of this audience, feeling like there was a sense that maybe our leaders were a little shaken,” said Carrier..Chief Sloly abruptly resigned February 15, one day after cabinet invoked the Emergencies Act to end the protest. Sloly in subsequent June 2 testimony at the House affairs committee said the Freedom Convoy was unlike previous G7 protests in Canada and likened the truckers’ sit-in to the storming of the U.S. Capitol in 2021..“While I appreciate the attempt to draw a nexus between the scale and complexity of the G20 and other G7 events that have taken place in Canada I do not think it is a comparison worthy of the discussions we need to have in order to really prepare for these types of events going forward,” said Sloly. “I would suggest that January 6 in the United States, Washington, DC, would be a closer aspect.”.The January 6, 2021 protest in Washington saw protesters disrupt a joint session of the U.S. Congress and cause US$1.5 million in property damage. A total 725 demonstrators were charged.
