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Province replacing three Ottawa police board appointees following allegations one attended 'Freedom Convoy' protest

On Wednesday, allegations emerged online that Robert Swaita, one of the provincial appointees, had attended the downtown demonstration.

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Ottawa’s police board is being overhauled — this time, by the provincial government — after allegations emerged Wednesday that one of its appointees attended the “Freedom Convoy” protest in downtown Ottawa.

The province will announce three new appointees to the board after receiving the resignations of its current appointees, according to a statement from the office of Sylvia Jones, Ontario’s solicitor general.

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Earlier in the day, allegations emerged online that Robert Swaita, one of the provincial appointees, had attended the downtown demonstration.

The allegations, which this newspaper has been unable to independently verify, were first reported by Queen’s Park Briefing, a news outlet whose focus is provincial politics. They resulted in calls from two Ottawa MPPs for Swaita’s removal from the board.

“Consistent with the city council’s decision to introduce new leadership and after accepting the resignation of provincial appointees, we are moving forward to appoint three new provincial members,” the statement from the solicitor general’s office said. “It is important that the people of Ottawa have confidence in their police governance, and this will bring fresh perspectives as the Board addresses recent events.”

The announcement means that the Ottawa Police Services Board now has no members who sat on it before the “Freedom Convoy” protests began in late January.

The board, which is composed of three city councillors, three provincial appointees and one community member appointed by city council, lost its chair, Diane Deans, to a city council vote during the protests, a move that resulted in the resignation of Carol Anne Meehan and Rawlson King, two councillors who sat on the board. Sandy Smallwood, the city appointee, also resigned.

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The Queen’s Park Briefing story, published Wednesday, said Swaita had attended protests near Parliament Hill “a few days after they started” and before any level of government had declared an emergency due to the protests. The outlet cited an unnamed source as evidence that Swaita had attended.

Queen’s Park Briefing said it reached Swaita for comment about the allegation and he said, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

Following the article’s publication, Ottawa-Vanier Liberal MPP Lucille Collard said Premier Doug Ford and Jones should remove Swaita from the police services board because of his “ties” with protest occupiers.

Collard said constituents kept asking her why police weren’t clearing the occupation. A provincially appointed police services board member attending the protest doesn’t look good for a provincial government accused of moving slowly to clear the occupation and help businesses, she said.

“At the very least, it raises suspicion for delayed action, for delayed support,” Collard said. “It’s not good for public confidence.”

Ottawa Centre NDP MPP Joel Harden called Swaita’s alleged participation in the protests “disturbing.”

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“This just adds insult to injury for the people of Ottawa, who are still picking up the pieces after a weeks-long occupation that wreaked havoc on their lives,” Harden said in a statement. “It would be completely unacceptable to allow someone who actively undermined local police by standing shoulder to shoulder with occupiers that local police were tasked with clearing out to continue to participate in local police oversight.”

A 2018 file photo of Robert Swaita, who was appointed to the Ottawa Police Services Board by the Ford government on March 5, 2020, for a three-year term.
A 2018 file photo of Robert Swaita, who was appointed to the Ottawa Police Services Board by the Ford government on March 5, 2020, for a three-year term. Photo by FILE

Collard said she didn’t have independent evidence that Swaita attended the protest, only what was reported by QP Briefing.

Asked if the context of Swaita’s alleged appearance at the protest mattered, such as the time he was there, Collard said the premier should do his own investigation. “There is some work to be done here,” Collard said.

Coun. Eli El-Chantiry, the recently appointed chair of the OPSB, said in a statement the board became aware of the Queen’s Park Briefing article on Wednesday afternoon.

“The Board was made aware of an article this afternoon alleging Board Member Swaita’s participation in recent protests near Parliament Hill rallying against COVID-19 vaccine mandates,” El-Chantiry said. “The Board will be meeting later this week to review the article and the allegations.”

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Deans, the former chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board who was ousted during the later stages of the demonstration, said in an interview she was not aware of Swaita’s alleged participation.

“I am quite dismayed that that happened,” she said of Swaita’s alleged attendance at the protests.

“We were receiving very confidential information, and, as a member of the police services board, I really feel he had a duty and an obligation to the board to disclose that he was supporting that protest.”

Swaita was appointed to the board by the Ford government on March 5, 2020, for a three-year term, joining the other provincial nominees Daljit Nirman and Beverly Johnson. He owns a restaurant in Ottawa and before sitting on the police board ran unsuccessfully against Deans for the city council seat in Gloucester-Southgate.

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