Ontario’s police watchdog is investigating allegations that Vancouver officers fired anti-riot rounds into a crowd while helping clear protesters from Ottawa’s downtown core.
The Special Investigations Unit said it is looking into two incidents.
The first involves a Toronto Police officer on horseback who allegedly had an encounter with a 49-year-old woman on Friday, resulting in an undisclosed serious injury, says an SIU statement released Sunday.
The second involves the use of anti-riot weapons, which the SIU says were deployed by members of the Vancouver Police Department on Saturday evening.
No injuries have been reported, the SIU says, but anyone struck by a projectile is asked to call Ottawa Police Service.
Like the Independent Investigations Office in B.C., the Ontario SIU investigates police actions that result in death, serious injury or the use of a firearm.
Six investigators and two forensics investigators have been assigned to the cases, the watchdog’s office said.
The alleged incidents come amid an enforcement blitz that Ottawa Police say has resulted in 191 arrests since it began on Thursday.
Police officers from across the country have been deployed to Ottawa to help clear protesters after a weeks-long occupation.
RCMP headquarters in Ottawa could not confirm that Mounties from Vancouver Island had been sent to Ottawa, but said it would not be a surprise, as members from almost every province have been deployed to the capital.
A spokesman for the Victoria Police Department said that the force was not asked to send any officers.
— With a file from the Times Colonist
