It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, September 05, 2022
Court shuts down one of Russia's last independent media
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Novaya Gazeta editor in chief says revoking licence
amounts to 'political hit job'
Thomson Reuters ·
Nobel Peace Prize-awarded journalist Dmitry Muratov, editor in chief of the influential Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, sits in a Moscow courtroom prior to hearing that the court had upheld a motion from Russian authorities to revoke the media outlet's licence. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/The Associated Press)
Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia's few remaining independent news outlets, was stripped of its media licence on Monday, and in effect banned from operating.
The country's media watchdog, Rozkomnadzor, had accused it of failing to provide documents related to a change of ownership in 2006.
Speaking outside court, editor in chief Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel Peace laureate for his efforts to uphold critical news reporting in Russia, said the ruling was "a political hit job, without the slightest legal basis." He said the paper would appeal.
In a statement, Novaya Gazeta said the decision by Moscow's Basmanny District Court, which often handles politically charged cases, had "killed the newspaper, stolen 30 years of life from its workers, and deprived readers of the right to information."
The United Nations Human Rights office called the judgment "yet another blow to the independence of Russian media," and urged Moscow to protect media freedom.
Novaya Gazeta has been a stalwart of Russia's media scene since its foundation in 1993 with money from the Nobel Peace Prize of late Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It had carved out a niche as Russia's leading investigative news outlet, even as media freedoms were gradually rolled back.
Muratov carries a portrait of the late Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, out of the House of Unions after a memorial service for the former president in Moscow on Saturday. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)
In March, it suspended operations in Russia after being cautioned for violating new laws imposing strict censorship on coverage of the conflict in Ukraine.
Staff have since set up a new spinoff online outlet in Europe, whose publications have also been blocked in Russia.
Muratov himself remains in Russia, and on Saturday led the funeral procession of Gorbachev, his financial backer and friend.
Large parts of Amazon may never recover, major study says
Swathes of rainforest have reached tipping point, research by scientists and Indigenous organisations concludes
Smoke rises from an illegally lit fire in a rainforest reserve south of Novo Progresso in Pará state, Brazil.
Environmental destruction in parts of the Amazon is so complete that swathes of the rainforest have reached tipping point and might never be able to recover, a major study carried out by scientists and Indigenous organisations has found. “The tipping point is not a future scenario but rather a stage already present in some areas of the region,” the report concludes. “Brazil and Bolivia concentrate 90% of all combined deforestation and degradation. As a result, savannization is already taking place in both countries.”
It found that only two of the nine, tiny Suriname and French Guiana, have at least half their forests still intact.
Amazonian Indigenous organisations representing 511 nations and allies are calling for a global pact for the permanent protection of 80% of the Amazon by 2025.
The 80% target is a massive challenge given that only 74% of the original forest remains. Urgent action is needed not only to protect the forest still standing but also to restore degraded land and get back to that 80% level.
“It’s difficult but doable,” said Alicia Guzmán, an Ecuadorian scientist who coordinated the report. “It is all dependent on the involvement of the Indigenous communities and people who live in the forest. That and the debt.”
Guzmán said giving Indigenous groups stewardship of more land – and crucially, providing state protection for it and removing legal loopholes that allow extractive industries in – was the surest way to guarantee preservation.
Almost half the Amazon has been designated either a protected area or Indigenous territory, and only 14% of all deforestation takes place there. Currently, about 100m hectares of Indigenous land are under dispute or awaiting formal government recognition.
“Having Indigenous people in the decision-making process means we count on the knowledge of those who know most about the forest,” said Guzmán. “And they need budgets.” Advertisement
They also need their land to be safeguarded from land-grabbers and extractive industries.
Mining is one of the growing threats, with protected areas and Indigenous land among the areas most coveted by prospectors. Much of the mining is clandestine and illegal but around half in protected areas is done legally, and scientists called on governments to reject or revoke mining permits.
Oil is another threat, particularly in Ecuador, the source of 89% of all the crude exported from the region.
Oil blocks cover 9.4 % of the Amazon’s surface and 43% of them are in protected areas and Indigenous land. More than half the Ecuadorian Amazon is designated as an oil block, the report said, and the portions in Peru (31%), Bolivia (29%) and Colombia (28%) are also worrying.
Of even greater concern is farming. Agriculture is responsible for 84% of deforestation, and the amount of land given over to farming has tripled since 1985, according to the report. Brazil is one of the world’s main food exporters, with soy, beef and grains feeding large parts of the world and bringing in billions of dollars each year.
A key recommendation of the study is more collaboration between regional governments, international financial institutions and the private equity firms that hold much of the debt owed by Amazonian nations.
Latin America is the most indebted region in the developing world and writing off that debt in return for preservation commitments would be significant.
“They have a unique opportunity before them to forgive existing debt in exchange for commitments to end industrial extraction and promote protections in key priority areas, indigenous territories and protected areas,” the report says.
Among the other 13 “solutions” proposed in the report are: a complete suspension of new licensing and financing for mining, oil, cattle ranching, large dams, logging, and other such activities; increased transparency and accountability along supply chains; the restoration of deforested land; new governance models that allow for increased representation and recognition for native peoples.
Although the task is enormous, there are reasons for optimism and particularly in Brazil, where the president, Jair Bolsonaro, faces the former incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a tense election on 2 October.
Lula leads in the polls. During his time in power in the 2000s, deforestation fell by more than 80%.
Solar Orbiter to look at Venus' magnetic field as it swings by the planet
"It is very interesting 'bonus science' enabled by Solar Orbiter's orbit design.'
The sun-observing Solar Orbiter spacecraft makes regular flybys at Venus, taking measurements of the planet's magnetic field as a side project. (Image credit: ESA)
The sun-studying Solar Orbiter spacecraft will swing by Venus on Saturday (Sept. 3) and gather bonus observations of our neighbor planet's mysterious magnetic field.
The Solar Orbiter mission, led by the European Space Agency (ESA), is already capturing the closest-ever images of the sun. Throughout its lifetime, the probe uses the gravity of Venus to adjust its orbit and sneak closer to our star. These regular swings past the hot and scorching planet also enable Solar Orbiter to look at the mysterious magnetic field of Earth's planetary sister.
Today's flyby will see Solar Orbiter make its closest approach at 9:26 p.m. EDT (0126 GMT on Sept. 4), coming as close as 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) to Venus.
During the maneuver, one of the probe's instruments will be taking measurements of Venus' bow shock, Daniel Muller, ESA's Solar Orbiter project scientist told Space.com in an email. A bow shock is the sun-facing region of a planet's magnetic field, where it meets the solar wind, the stream of charged particles emanating from the sun.
"It is very interesting 'bonus science' enabled by Solar Orbiter's orbit design, and we are doing all we can to exploit it," Muller wrote.
The upcoming flyby will be Solar Orbiter's third of Venus; the previous encounters also offered observations of the planet's magnetism. Unlike Earth, Venus doesn't have an inherent magnetic field generated by the motion of molten metal in the planet's interior. Instead, Venus' magnetic field is what scientists call an induced magnetic field, a result of the interaction between Venus' thick atmosphere and the solar wind.
Measurements obtained during the previous Venus flybys(opens in new tab) in December 2020 and August 2021 revealed that on the side of Venus facing away from the sun, the magnetic field, although extremely weak, extends at least 188,000 miles (300,000 km) into space. Solar Orbiter also found that despite its weak and unstable nature, the magnetic field accelerates charged particles within Venus' magnetosphere to speeds of over 5 million mph (8 million kph).
Scientists have known Venus' magnetic field existed since the first spacecraft visited the planet(opens in new tab)in the 1960s and 1980s. There are, however, still many unanswered questions about the field's origins and behavior.
Solar Orbiter, which launched in 2020, will have several more opportunities to contribute to answering those questions. The probe will return to Venus eight times over nearly a decade during its travels in space to use the planet's gravity to shift its orbit out of the ecliptic plane, in which planets orbit.
These maneuvers will eventually allow the spacecraft to view the sun's poles, which are so far completely unexplored. The polar regions are critical to generating the sun's magnetic field, which in turn drives the sun's 11-year-cycle of activity, the ebb and flow in the creation of sunspots, eruptions and flares. The exact mechanism behind this cycle and its varying intensity remains unknown.
Solar Orbiter will have the best chance to answer these questions as it studies the star just as its activity builds up toward the peak of the current solar cycle, predicted to occur around 2025.
Life on Venus, or the possibility thereof, has been a hot topic (SIC) as of late. There’s also been plenty of controversies, including the (still disputed) discovery of phosphine, a potential biomarker in the atmosphere. The best way to lay that controversy to rest would be to go there and actually take samples, which at the very least, would help constrain the existence of life in Venus’ cloud layers. And a wide-ranging team from academia and industry hopes to do just that.
Originally announced late last year, the Venus Life Finder (VLF) mission concept focuses on what science would be needed to potentially discover life in the clouds of Venus. The team behind the mission certainly isn’t the first to come up with the idea of life in the Venusian clouds. Despite his admonitions about dinosaurs on the Venusian surface, Carl Sagan and co-author Harold Morowitz were the first to scientifically publish the idea in 1967.
Since then, we’ve sent several probes through the Venusian clouds, and they discovered plenty of strange chemistries that warrant another look. But unfortunately, we haven’t sent any probes back through the cloud layers since the 1980s. Not only have technologies that might be useful in the search for life improved dramatically since then. So did the entire scientific field of Astrobiology, as noted in a new paper discussing future missions released by the VLF team.
Those two facts in themselves should mean that it’s time for another look at Venus’ atmosphere from a biochemical perspective, and that’s what the VLF team is hoping to provide. Their three-phase mission was originally defined late last year. And the first step is ambitious, to say the least.
VLF’s team has contracted with Rocketlab to send a probe to the Venusian atmosphere using a 2023 launch window. Rocketlab will provide the rocket and necessary transportation to our nearest neighbor. That would include a ride on the company’s Electron launch vehicle, Photon spacecraft, and an entry vehicle.
Unfortunately, that entry vehicle will only allow a probe to collect data in the upper atmosphere of the clouds, where the climate is most hospitable, for approximately three minutes. But those three minutes will be immensely valuable. The scientific payload for this first mission will focus on an Autoflourescing Nephelometer (AFN), which can make organic material shine, and would do so for any present organic material in Venus’ clouds.
First balloon mission concept, with probes that would fall through the atmosphere. Credit – Seager et al.
Previously probes already found some strangely shaped molecules that were not simply made of liquid sulfuric acid. Known as Mode 3 particles, their existence is one of the main drivers behind the interest in the mission in the first place. An AFN, which is based on existing commercial technologies that are already used on the outside of airplanes, could provide unique insights that would inform the next mission – a balloon.
The idea of a balloon mission to Venus isn’t new, either. Some inspired futurists have even suggested that balloons might be able to support entire cities in Venus’ cloud layer. But the new VLF mission would not only utilize a balloon and gondola but would launch a series of probes down through the cloud layer that could potentially collect data on the environment further down. The scientific payload of this much more capable mission would include a spectrometer that would search for specific gases that might be key biosignatures, as well as a microelectricalmechanical system that can detect the presence of metals and an extremely sensitive pH sensor that could validate what the pH the balloon’s cloud layers would be. Most of these technologies already exist, but some, such as a liquid concentrator to feed the spectrometer, still need to be developed.
That development effort would feed nicely into the final of the three VLF missions – a sample return mission. Just like the planned sample return mission from Mars and the half a ton of rock brought back from the moon, the best way to truly understand what is going on chemically in a given part of the solar system is to bring a sample of it back to the labs on Earth. The third VLF mission would design another balloon that would also include an ascending rocket that returns a sample of Venus’ atmosphere back to Earth to be directly studied by the best instruments we can muster.
Concept art for the Venus sample return mission. Credit – Seager et al.
Without further technological advances to capture and effectively store the atmosphere, it would be a moot point, but experience from the other two missions would help inform the sample return mission. And there would still be plenty of time before any such mission is launched. If the VLF team does manage to get its first mission off the ground next year, it would be an amazing accomplishment and could potentially lead to one of the most important discoveries science has ever made.
B.C.’s seniors advocate wants this province to follow Ontario’s lead and make air conditioning in each resident’s room mandatory for long-term care homes.
Earlier this month, the Ontario government fined two nursing homes $1,100 for not complying with new regulations that required air conditioning in each resident’s room by June 22 of this year.
That province dedicated more than $61 million to help care homes install updated HVAC systems.
B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie says if B.C. budgeted a similar amount per capita, it would work out to about $20 million.
“Number one, I think given what we know about the future, I do not believe it’s unreasonable that it be the standard in every resident’s room,” said Mackenzie. “The idea that you have to move them out of their room into common areas, I don’t believe is about dignified home-like care.”
Some care homes here in the Okanagan still don’t have air conditioning in each room. Last year during the heat dome and again this year, when temperatures spiked into the mid-30s, Castanet received complaints about seniors being moved into common areas to keep them cool.
Mackenzie notes that Ontario set an ambitious goal and, for the most part, met that goal.
She understands that it could take time to implement similar legislation in BC.
“What I am concerned about is we haven’t set it as the standard or the expectation. That’s what I’m more concerned about.
“We’re going to be building new beds, we’re going to be refurbishing some places. I would like to think when we do that, we set a standard that each room have individual air conditioning,” Mackenzie said.
She believes it's not unreasonable to make it a standard requirement in British Columbia, and especially here in the Southern Interior where the summers are so hot.
Castanet reached out to BC Ministry of Health about the issues. The ministry confirmed that the Community Care and Assisted Living Act states that a licensee must ensure that the temperature in each bedroom, bathroom and common room is safe and comfortable for a person who is carrying out the types of activities that would be reasonably expected in the ordinary use of the room. However, there is no requirement for mechanical air conditioning in each resident’s room.
In the wake of last year’s deadly heat dome, there has been a push to get A/C to seniors and the vulnerable living in private homes.
Mackenzie says that will be a much more difficult undertaking, but when it comes to long-term care, she has a message for the government.
“That we revise our requirements under licensing to align with the type of licensing regulations they’ve developed in Ontario requiring mechanical ventilation in all areas of the care home.
“It’s more dignified care and also from, if you want to think about an infection control perspective, how effective is it to crowd everybody into the one room that has air conditioning versus having air conditioning in each room.”
Canada: Violent killing of activist shocks Indo-Canadian community in British Columbia
The unfortunate death of Manbir Mani Amar occurred on Wednesday. Amar made two films attacking gang culture within the Indo-Canadian community in the Metro Vancouver region in the province of British Columbia
A screenshot of the website for Manbir Amar’s film Footsteps Into Gangland (Supplied pic)
TORONTO: The Indo-Canadian community in the Metro Vancouver region in the Canadian province of British Columbia is in a state of shock following the violent killing of an activist, who also made a mark in movies opposing gang culture.
The unfortunate death of Manbir Mani Amar occurred on Wednesday afternoon. At around 1.50pm, Surrey RCMP reacted to a “report of an altercation between two men. Upon police attendance, an adult male was located in medical distress. Despite all attempts by first responders to save the man’s life, he succumbed to his injuries on scene”.
A suspect has been arrested but not yet named, and the case is being investigated by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT). Local media cited IHIT as stating he died due to an altercation with a neighbour escalating into violence.
Amar made two films attacking gang culture within the Indo-Canadian community in the region. A Warrior’s Religion in 2009 was described as “a poetic documentary on the epidemic issue of South Asian gang violence in Metro Vancouver”. It was self produced and took three years to complete. In 2011, he followed with Footsteps Into Gangland, is, according to its website, about “choices” and it features an underboss of a street gang attempting to recruit his cousin.
Balwant Sanghera of the South Asian Community Coalition against Youth Violence described his death as a “shock”. “He was a very talented person. He did a lot of work specially in the area of gang prevention. He had a very interesting way of communicating the message, conveying it to youth,” Sanghera said.
Sanghera also said Amar’s work through film complemented that of organisations like his. Karen Reid Sidhu, executive director of the Surrey Crime Prevention Society, tweeted that his death came as a “tremendous loss” and that he was “instrumental in working with vulnerable youth to steer them away from gang life.”
“Mani touched the lives of many individuals,” his brother Gurbinder said in a statement cited by the outlet Vancouver Sun.
'High possibility' soldier killed reporter, Israeli army investigation finds
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Shireen Abu Alekh was shot and killed in the occupied West Bank in May
The Associated Press ·
In this undated photo provided by Al Jazeera Media Network, Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist for Al Jazeera network, stands next to a TV camera. Abu Akleh, a well-known Palestinian reporter for the broadcaster's Arabic language channel, was shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin on May 11. (Al Jazeera Media Network/The Associated Press)
The Israeli army said Monday there was a "high possibility" that a soldier killed a well-known Al Jazeera journalist in the occupied West Bank last May, as it announced the results of its investigation into the killing.
In a briefing to reporters, a senior military official said a soldier opened fire after mistakenly identifying Shireen Abu Akleh as a militant. But he provided no evidence to back up the Israeli claim that Palestinian gunmen were present in the area and said no one would be punished. He also did not address video evidence showing the area to be quiet before Abu Akleh was shot.
The conclusions followed a series of investigations by media organizations and the United States that concluded Israel either fired, or most likely had fired, the deadly shot. But they were unlikely to put the matter to rest.
"He misidentified her," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under military briefing guidelines. "His reports in real time … absolutely point to a misidentification."
Abu Akleh was wearing a helmet and a vest identifying her as press when she was killed in May while covering Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem accused the army of carrying out a whitewash.
"It was no mistake. It's policy," the group said.
A mural depicting Abu Akleh is shown on part of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on July 6. The mural by Palestinian artist Taqi Spateen appeared days ahead of a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden. (Mahmoud Illean/The Associated Press)
Al Jazeera's local bureau chief, Walid Al-Omari, accused the army of trying to escape responsibility. "This is clearly an attempt to circumvent the opening of a criminal investigation," he told The Associated Press.
The 51-year-old Palestinian-American had covered the West Bank for two decades and was a well-known face across the Arab world. The Palestinians, and Abu Akleh's family, have accused Israel of intentionally killing her, and her death remains a major point of contention between the sides.
The official said the military could not conclusively determine where the fire emanated from, saying there may have been Palestinian gunmen in the same area as the Israeli soldier. But he said the soldier shot the journalist "with very high likelihood" and did so by mistake.
The official did not explain why witness accounts and videos showed no militant activity in the area, as well as no gunfire in the vicinity until the barrage that struck Abu Akleh and wounded another reporter.
Journalist's family criticizes investigation
He also did not say why the investigation had taken four months, though he said the Israeli military chief asked for more information after an initial probe. The official said the investigation had been shared with the military's independent prosecutor, who had decided not to launch a criminal probe. That means no one will be charged in the shooting.
Abu Akleh's family criticized the investigation, saying the army "tried to obscure the truth and avoid responsibility" for the killing.
The family also reiterated its call for an independent U.S. investigation and a probe by the International Criminal Court.
Rights groups say Israeli investigations of the shooting deaths of Palestinians often languish for months or years before being quietly closed and that soldiers are rarely held accountable.
WATCH | Al Jazeera reporter killed:
Veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin.
Israel has said she was killed during a complex battle with Palestinian militants and that only a forensic analysis of the bullet could confirm whether it was fired by an Israeli soldier or a Palestinian militant. However, a U.S.-led analysis of the bullet last July was inconclusive as investigators said the bullet had been badly damaged.
An Associated Press reconstruction of her killing lent support to witness accounts that she was killed by Israeli forces. Subsequent investigations by CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post reached similar conclusions, as did monitoring by the office of the UN human rights chief.
Abu Akleh rose to fame two decades ago during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli rule. She documented the harsh realities of life under Israeli military rule — now well into its sixth decade with no end in sight — for viewers across the Arab world.
Israeli police drew widespread criticism from around the world when they beat mourners and pallbearers at her funeral in Jerusalem on May 14. An Israeli newspaper reported that a police investigation found wrongdoing by some of its officers, but said those who supervised the event will not be seriously punished.
Jenin has long been a bastion of Palestinian militants, and several recent deadly attacks inside Israel have been carried out by young men from in and around the town. Israel frequently carries out military raids in Jenin, which it says are aimed at arresting militants and preventing more attacks.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and has built settlements where nearly 500,000 Israelis live alongside nearly three million Palestinians. The Palestinians want the territory to form the main part of a future state.
RCMP feared that Mounties might leak operational plans to convoy protesters: documents
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'The potential exists for serious insider threats,' says the Feb. 10 advisory
An RCMP tactical vehicle drives past the Parliament buildings on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
The RCMP feared that serving Mounties sympathetic to the convoy protest against pandemic measures in Ottawa earlier this year might leak operational plans to protesters, says an internal threat advisory obtained by CBC News.
"The potential exists for serious insider threats," says the Feb. 10 advisory from the RCMP's ideologically motivated criminal intelligence team.
"Those who have not lost their jobs but are sympathetic to the movement and their former colleagues may be in a position to share law enforcement or military information to the convoy protests."
The document, obtained by CBC News through an access to information request, shows the RCMP worried that some of their own might co-operate with the protesters who barricaded streets in downtown Ottawa for weeks.
It was well-documented during the protests that some key convoy supporters had previous ties to law enforcement — among them a former RCMP officer who was on the prime minister's security detail and a former military intelligence officer.
That sparked concerns within the RCMP's ideologically motivated criminal intelligence unit about convoy participants getting an inside track on how police operate.
"Convoy supporters formerly employed in law enforcement and the military have appeared alongside organizers and may be providing them with logistical and security advice, which may pose operational challenges for law enforcement should policing techniques and tactics be revealed to convoy participants,'' says the unit's advisory.
Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism, said it's no surprise the RCMP was worried about members leaking information to convoy participants.
"We have to look at what we do know about sexism, misogyny and racism within the RCMP. And you know, those are the bread and butter of the far-right movement," she said.
Perry said researchers have been able to delve into extremism in the Canadian Armed Forces, but researching extremist ties in law enforcement has been harder.
"That thin blue line is alive and well and police are very reticent to speak about these sorts of issues," she said.
Ben Froese, a crane operator who was parked on Wellington Street, is pepper sprayed while police enforce an injunction against protesters in Ottawa on Feb. 19, 2022. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
"We haven't really done a whole lot of research in the Canadian context but in the U.S., study after study shows that law enforcement rates very high in terms of authoritarian values, which is part and parcel of the far-right as well. So I think there's definitely overlap."
CBC asked the RCMP whether its concerns about "insider threats" ever materialized. The police force did not respond in time for publication.
Michael Kempa, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa, said worries about information leaks may have played a role in how police shared information during the convoy occupation.
"When the convoy had settled in, there would have been concerns in all police organizations that there would be a small number of police with sympathies for the convoy," he said.
"That's because there's these sympathies in our society. So yes, I would be very confident that police leadership would have been careful in how they were sharing information, taking that into consideration."
Security adviser 'unclear' on OPS enforcement plan
The police response to last winter's Freedom Convoy protests will take centre stage next month when a public inquiry begins its study of the federal government's rationale for using emergency measures.
Concerns about how information was being shared among police and security forces was teased out in talking points prepared for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security and intelligence adviser — also released to CBC News in the same access-to-information package.
On Feb. 9, according to the documents, national security adviser to the prime minister Jody Thomas held a meeting with federal deputy ministers to update them on the protests and the police response.
Jody Thomas, national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister, arrives at the West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
By that date, a dedicated cohort of protesters upset with COVID-19 public health measures had blocked city streets for nearly 13 days, prompting the City of Ottawa to declare a state of emergency. Mayor Jim Watson described the situation as the "the most serious emergency our city has ever faced."
Peter Sloly, chief of the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) at the time, told a Feb. 7 Ottawa city council meeting that he needed an influx of almost 2,000 police officers and civilians to "turn up the heat."
But Sloly's plans for going forward weren't clear to everyone involved.
"Over the course of the two weekends and throughout the weeks, OPS has brought in additional police resources from a number of Ontario municipalities and the OPP, depending upon the estimated and actual number of protesters," Thomas's notes say.
"However, the OPS has not yet shared its forward plan for enforcement with partners and it is unclear whether the plan has been developed. This has resulted in some surge resources from OPP and other municipal law enforcement being redeployed."
A spokesperson for the Privy Council Office (PCO) said the term "partners" would have referred to other security and policing agencies, including the RCMP and the Parliamentary Protective Services.
When asked for more details about the enforcement plan, a spokesperson for the Ottawa Police Service said the force will not comment "while the parliamentary review is underway."
The RCMP also wouldn't comment on the discussions the Mounties were having at the time with the OPS, the main police force of jurisdiction for the Ottawa protest.
"It would not be appropriate to comment on specific operational discussions that took place with our law enforcement and security partners at the time, as this information will be disclosed in due course at the Public Order Emergency Commission," said RCMP spokesperson Charlotte Hibbard.
"The RCMP has a longstanding positive relationship with the Ottawa Police Service and other law enforcement and security partners within the National Capital Region. "
An Ontario Provincial Police tactical officer looks on from the top hatch of an armoured vehicle as demonstrators prepare to leave in advance of police enforcing an injunction against a demonstration blocking traffic across the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., on Feb. 12, 2022. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Scott Blandford is an assistant professor and program coordinator for the policing and master of public safety program at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont. He said that when one police force sends aid to another, they usually keep each other in the loop.
"I personally can't see an organization withholding intelligence and information once another organization has committed to provide aid," he said.
"I think what happened here was that the situation was so dynamic, was changing by the day, not only by the number of people that were becoming involved and what their involvement was. And in a lot of ways ... the initial movement was co-opted by a number of other organizations which kept adding new layers and new dimensions to it."
In such a fast-changing climate, he said, policing plans might have to change daily.
U.S. nudged Canada to use emergency powers: docs
The documents released to CBC also show the government crafted a strategic action plan sometime between Jan. 24 and Feb. 11 that raised concerns about how police were responding to the protests.
According to the plan document, the purpose of the plan was to "support a discussion by committee members on the strategic direction and ideas for federal actions to empower the City of Ottawa's resolution of the ongoing demonstration." (PCO did not identify the committee in question for CBC News.)
"There is currently no clear path and an escalation of sympathetic protests across Canada risks further jeopardizing the national interest," says the document.
"The ineffectiveness of governments and law enforcement to resolve this situation is drawing the attention of the public from the occupiers' actions to the lack of response."
On Feb. 12, the OPS, the Ontario Provincial Police and the RCMP formed an Integrated Command Centre to coordinate their response to the Ottawa protests.
By that point, other protests against pandemic measures were erupting across the country. One shut down the border crossing at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor. Ont. — Canada's busiest commercial route.
On Feb. 10, the U.S. urged the federal government to use its emergency powers to end border blockades, according to a Privy Council Office national operations update released as part of the document dump.
On Feb. 14, Trudeau announced the government would invoke the Emergencies Act for the first time since it was crafted in 1988 — a controversial move that gave authorities temporary powers that included the ability to freeze the bank accounts and credit cards of protesters. Attending any event deemed an unlawful assembly, such as the Ottawa convoy protest, also became illegal.
"It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law," Trudeau said during a news conference that day. The act was revoked on Feb. 23 after police cleared Ottawa streets.
Talk of a 'breakthrough' the night before invocation
According to court documents previously made public, Thomas — who was the former deputy minister of national defence before becoming Trudeau's top intelligence adviser — told cabinet there was "potential for a breakthrough" with convoy leaders the night before the Emergencies Act was invoked.
Those redacted court documents were filed recently in Federal Court as part of a lawsuit challenging the government's use of the act.
The court documents do not include any details about the possible breakthrough cited by Thomas on Feb. 13.
The office of Canada's public safety minister has since said that Thomas was referring to negotiations led "principally" by the City of Ottawa that were "ultimately unsuccessful" after being "disavowed" by many associated with the convoy.
"The government considered this as a factor in the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act," said a statement from Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino's office.
"The situation remained volatile and the threat of future blockades remained. In Ottawa, there was a significant escalation in the boldness of the protestors and ... the city's 911 system was overloaded due to hoax calls."
WATCH | Why Ottawa protesters seem to be a step ahead of police
Experts say the presence of former police officers within the ranks of the Ottawa protesters is giving them a tactical edge over local law enforcement.
Weeks after the occupation ended, Thomas defended the decision to use the act, saying the protesters were "dug in" and "there's no doubt [they] came to overthrow the government."
The government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act has drawn intense criticism from political opponents and civil liberty advocates.
From the opposition benches, Mendicino has faced calls to resign and questions about who wanted the government to deploy emergency powers.
As part of themergences Act, a public inquiry is being held to analyze the federal government's reasons for deploying emergency measures.
That inquiry was scheduled to start later this month but has been delayed until Oct. 13.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catharine Tunney is a reporter with CBC's Parliament Hill bureau, where she covers national security and the RCMP. She worked previously for CBC in Nova Scotia. You can reach her at catharine.tunney@cbc.ca
