Ottawa police confirm internal investigation involving convoy report author

Ottawa police have confirmed their professional standards branch is reviewing social media posts by the author of an intelligence assessment prepared in the lead-up to last winter's convoy protest.

Different versions of the report, originally dated Jan. 25 and authored by Sgt. Chris Kiez of the Ottawa Police Service's (OPS) security intelligence section, have been entered into evidence at the Public Order Emergency Commission, which is probing the federal government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to help end the occupation.

On Tuesday, OPS confirmed its professional standards section has launched an investigation into earlier LinkedIn posts by Kiez. Last week, OPS told CBC the branch was "reviewing" the posts.

PressProgress first reported on the document on Oct. 25, and on Oct. 31 followed up with a separate story about the social media posts.

According to the left-leaning non-profit news site, Kiez's LinkedIn account disappeared soon after the first story was published, but screenshots of some of his posts continued to circulate on the internet.

LinkedIn posts

According to one message, which PressProgress said was "allegedly posted in October 2022," Kiez appears to call teachers "the most vile of the left-marxist set, who admit trying to indoctrinate as many people as possible … They are making a future generation of crybabies, utterly dependent upon government for everything."

In another post, Kiez appears to complain about federal funding for "all sorts of insane social programs for pronoun usage and breaking the laws and ethics left right and Center. Don't ask me how I know."

The posts, and the internal police investigation, could potentially cast the intelligence report prepared by Kiez in a new light.

The document, which grew from seven to nine pages over the course of several edits and would ultimately be dated Jan. 28, was compiled to inform OPS commanders about the convoys, which at the time were converging on the capital from every direction.

The first trucks began arriving in Ottawa on Jan. 28, and high-ranking officers who have testified at the inquiry said it was generally believed the protesters would leave town by the following Monday.

'Vast number of vehicles'

The report describes the movement as "a spontaneous grass roots protest" with the goal of ending all COVID-19-related mandates and restrictions.

"At the time of writing, there is no critical intelligence to suggest any sort of violent actions or concerns for violence," the report begins, though it notes that due to the "vast number of vehicles" involved, protesters "will be able to stop and effectively shut down movement if they desire."

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It also warns that the influx of mobile phones into the city's downtown could overload cellular networks and hinder communication.

The report notes "the federal government is strenuously ignoring the event," and warns that approach could backfire.

"Historically, refusal of a leader to meet or address the reality of a popular uprising has, historically, led to situations becoming unmanageable."

Disdainful of 'professional' activists

Drawing comparisons between the protesters who were about to descend on the city and other protest movements, the report is highly disdainful of "professional" activists whose tactics Kiez mocks, and even mentions one local activist by name.

"This event is … less of a 'professional protest' with the usual sad players, but rather, is a truly organic grass roots event that is gathering momentum largely from the widespread population," Kiez wrote.

"The [anti-mandate] protests globally are made up almost entirely of middle-class members of society," he went on. "The so-called 'silent majority' is numerically much larger than the professional activists, such as local Sam Hersch can order up."

Sam Hersh, whose name is misspelled in the OPS document, is a board member of Horizon Ottawa.

"I was obviously disturbed, shocked to an extent to see it, but I think a lot of us who are involved in this sort of activism — police accountability and other sort of left-wing activism in the city — sort of expect this sort of sentiment of disdain that was reflected in the report," Hersh told CBC on Tuesday.

"I think this speaks to a larger issue within the police force. I don't think this was an isolated incident."

Superintendent asked for edits

According to an internal email chain also entered into evidence at the commission, Supt. Mark Patterson asked Kiez on Jan. 28 to remove the reference to Hersh, and to rephrase the reference to "the usual sad players."

Hersh's name has been removed from the fourth and presumably final version, but the "sad players" remain. (The email chain also refers to a fifth version of the report.)

Large sections of the report are borrowed directly from National Post columnist Rex Murphy, though one such quote is wrongly attributed to one of the newspaper's reporters. 

"A true protest, one that's grounded in actual circumstances, that arises from long-term government overreach [...] one that emerges from discontent long discounted and ignored, built around the cardinal idea of pursuing a legitimate livelihood, well, that's rare. That's what we're seeing with the truckers," reads one excerpt quoting a Jan. 24 column by Murphy.

In a later section, the report quotes from the same newspaper column: "Resentment over the hypocrisies of officials and politicians can daily wear at the patience of citizens."

'One of our best': Sloly

At times, Kiez appears to blur the borrowed quotes with his own thoughts on the origins and growing size of the protest movement. 

In one section, the report refers to the number of members of a pro-convoy Facebook page, 397,000, as representing "more than a tenth of the Canadian population," an obvious error in fact.

Ultimately, the report concludes that "no adverse intelligence or any information concerning a specific threat towards this event has been determined at this time."

Shown the intelligence report when he appeared before the commission on Oct. 28, former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly testified it was his first time seeing the document, but he complimented its author.

"Sgt. Chris Kiez is one of our best intelligence operators. I had a chance to interact with him quite a bit when I was at the police service," Sloly told the commission.