Public Hearing Audience publique - Commissioner / Commissaire The Honourable / L’honorable

JEAN-SIMON SCHOENHOLZ: And was the province 2 aware of the threats of a blockade prior to the arrival of the 3 convoy at the border or near the border? 4 ADM MARLIN DEGRAND: The information we were 5 receiving at the time through the RCMP was based on their 6 conversations with organizers. [...] JEAN-SIMON SCHOENHOLZ: And do you know 20 whether there was planning for the possibility of a blockade? 21 ADM MARLIN DEGRAND: I want to defer probably to 22 Deputy Zablocki, Deputy Commissioner Zablocki, on that, but the 23 briefings I had were around the fact that there’s knowledge of 24 the convoy, the fact -- the approximate size of what they 25 anticipated was going to be coming, their plans. [...] Yeah, there 13 was some early conversations around the challenges that the 14 community of Coutts was facing, and I know one of the things 15 that the RCMP informed me they were working with, and they 16 managed to gain support for, was creating access for the 17 community to roadways out of the area in the first day or two of 18 the event, or couple days of the event. [...] JEAN-SIMON SCHOENHOLZ: And what did you 6 understand a more lawful protest to look like? 7 ADM MARLIN DEGRAND: The flow of -- the 8 information that the RCMP were stating is their goal was always 9 certainly -- throughout the event but certainly at the start was 10 to re-establish the flow of traffic through the Coutts border 11 crossing. [...] The 8 determination was made by our government that, given the number 9 of tools that were already available in statute to police, the 10 addition of the Emergency Act would’ve changed nothing in terms 11 of the authorities that the police required.