No Profile In Courage

The public inquiry into the convoy wants to talk to Doug Ford. But Ford isn't talking. Althia Raj writes:

Last Monday, the Ontario premier was asked why he wasn’t testifying at the commission. Among the 65 witnesses scheduled to testify, from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, Ford’s name was conspicuously absent.

“Were you asked? Did you decline?” a CBC reporter queried on Oct. 17.

“I have not been asked,” the premier responded.

But Monday, in a letter to several lawyers representing interested parties at the inquiry, the commission’s co-lead counsels Shantona Chaudhury and Jeffrey Leon wrote they had asked Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones, who was then the solicitor general, for interviews.

“The information gathered by commission counsel in the course of the investigation made clear that Premier Ford and Minister Jones would have evidence, particularly within their knowledge, that would be relevant to the commission’s mandate,” they wrote.

They asked on Sept. 19 and several times after that, they wrote. “All requests were refused.”

Chaudhury and Leon then asked Ford and Jones to testify voluntarily. But “as of last week,” that invitation had been “declined ‘for the moment.’”

So Monday, summonses were issued.

Why Ford's silence? Well, so far, what the inquiry has discovered doesn't make officials look good:

So far, those who have followed the commission’s hearings learned the Ottawa Police Service was completely unprepared, senior officers didn’t trust each other, fought with each other, and their response was, unsurprisingly, unco-ordinated and unsuccessful. Ottawa city council wasn’t much better, with petty politics appearing to rule the day. It has not been much of a trust-building exercise, but in the end it should be. Given a full and transparent picture, citizens should be able to judge for themselves whether officials — at all levels — acted appropriately.

There are lots of questions:

Namely, why didn’t the province step in when it was clear the City of Ottawa and its police service were overwhelmed? Municipalities are creatures of the provinces. It was Ontario’s problem. What did the province do? According to federal Liberal sources, Ford’s government suggested behind closed doors that it was the federal government’s responsibility to act, seemingly because Ottawa is the country’s capital and the Ambassador Bridge a Canada-U.S. border crossing. Did the lack of agreement lead to further delay and an entrenchment of the protesters? Did the federal government take action that was more aggressive than necessary because of gaps in the province’s response?

Ford doesn't want to answer those questions. He's never been a profile in courage.

Image: The Toronto Star