Ottawa police are conducting an internal investigation into a small number of officers who may have supported the “Freedom Convoy” protests that disrupted the Canadian capital last month.
Ottawa’s Interim Police Chief Steve Bell told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) on Thursday that the department had already launched an inquiry and was committed to the internal investigation.
“We started investigations into individuals who may have been involved. Those will continue. I think it’s really important to note that it’s a very, very small number,” the chief said in response to a CBC question about officers donating to the protest movement.
The “Freedom Convoy” protests started when Canadian truckers began protesting a vaccine mandate and other COVID-19 restrictions in Canada. The most disruptive protests took place in Windsor, Ontario, interrupting the flow of goods at the border between the Canadian province and Detroit, Mich.
In Ottawa, protesters parked trucks and other vehicles in the capital city, disrupting business for about three weeks until Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the national emergencies act to clear out the demonstrators.
“The blockades and occupations are illegal,” Trudeau told the Canadian Parliament last month in defense of the national emergencies act. “They’re a threat to our economy and relationship with trading partners. They are a threat to supply chains and the availability of essential goods, like food and medicine. They’re a threat to public safety.”
Ottawa Police began clearing out the protest zone on Feb. 18 but met resistance from some protesters. Police later donned riot gear and batons to fight back against lingering protesters.
The “Freedom Convoy” protesters — who are now seeing their efforts mimicked worldwide, including in the U.S. — netted a large amount of money throughout the protests.
A data hack released last month identified thousands of supporters who donated to the movement through crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo, a large amount of them from the U.S., according to the CBC.
Last week, a CBC investigation identified two dozen current and former officers with both Ontario Police and Ottawa Police who allegedly donated to the protest movement.
Both Toronto and Ontario Police launched internal investigations into officers who may have donated to the protesters.
Ottawa chief Bell publicly joined the other departments on Thursday, telling the CBC that “we need to deal with the people who supported it.”
“There’s no room for them, but the vast majority of this organization did everything within their power, in an absolutely professional way, to remove that demonstration from our streets,” the chief said.