Outgoing Ottawa News Today

Ottawa's former police chief said in late January that convoy protesters about to descend on the capital would be gone by the end of the first weekend, the former chair of the oversight board for Ottawa police told the inquiry into the federal government's use of the Emergencies Act on Wednesday.

A secretly recorded conversation between Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and Coun. Diane Deans about an aborted plan to hire a new police chief at the height of last winter's convoy protest was played Wednesday at the public inquiry examining the federal government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to help end the crisis.

The incumbent councillor and his former mentor are dominating the campaign in this City of Ottawa ward.