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According to a confidential briefing, dated July 10, 2014, Harper’s physician or a bodyguard was to call an exclusive phone line at the Ottawa dispatch centre. The dedicated phone – yes, it was red – was to be answered only by Ottawa paramedic’s head dispatcher, and no matter the severity of the medical problem, it was assigned the highest priority, a Code 4 (normally reserved for life-threatening calls).

This call was known as “Red Phone Activation, Harrington Lake,” and the dispatcher was prohibited from giving details to crews over radio airwaves, and was instead ordered to give them instructions over the phone. This special provision kept the call private and off ambulance scanners, and in turn out of the public’s eye.

The dispatcher was instructed, according to the briefing, to send either an advanced-paramedic crew or members of the paramedic-tactical unit across the river into Quebec. The protocol then required them to call a Gatineau ambulance to also respond to Harrington Lake. It was structured as a race and the crew that arrived second was to act as a “backup.” Normally, when two ambulances respond to the same call, the one that arrives second calls dispatch and goes out of service.

If the prime minister or a member of his family needed to be transported to hospital, the designated hospital was the Civic on Carling Avenue — the only hospital in Ottawa that can handle all emergencies and is connected to Ottawa’s heart institute.