… We’ve seen police officers dress up as protesters before but military troops potentially dressing up police officers is something new on Canada’s political and law enforcement landscapes. Yet, despite the Canadian government’s insistence the military would not be deployed to help end last winter’s Freedom Convoy protest blocking streets below Parliament Hill, sneaking the military into the middle of the protest disguised as police was discussed.
A text message exchange between the RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and her Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) counterpart suggests the federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair asked Lucki to express support for the Emergencies Act a few days after its invocation.
As the second full week of hearings by the Public Order Emergency Commission winds down, it’s becoming increasingly clear just how weak the government’s rationale appears to be for invoking the Emergencies Act. As I wrote last week, key witnesses, including the OPP’s intelligence chief Supt. Pat Morris, shredded the federal narrative that the protesters were a violent and dangerous fringe who posed an imminent threat to the nation’s capital. Morris’s point of view was reconfirmed by OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique, who asserted categorically that there was no “credible threat” to national security posed by the Freedom Convoy.
I’ll be joining @JasonLavigneMP at the 1pm lunch break to discuss Ex-Chief Peter Sloly who testifies today at the Emergencies Act Inquiry.
They have been blaming Sloly for weeks. When the bell rings will he come out of his corner as a brawler, sniper, or victim? https://t.co/lCS94qkd3J
— DonaldBest.CA * IT ENDS WHEN WE DO NOT COMPLY (@DonaldBestCA) October 28, 2022
Commissioner Lucki Contemplated Dressing Soldiers in RCMP Uniforms During Freedom Convoy: Text Messages
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique on Feb. 13 that she was thinking about dressing military personnel in RCMP uniforms to increase police resources, according to text messages filed as evidence at the Public Order Emergency Commission.
“It’s funny you say that, because I was thinking maybe we use CAF [Canadian Armed Forces] but in our uniforms as unarmed Auxiliaries or Spl. Csts. [special constables] to supplement us.. in teams,” Lucki wrote.
Embattled and rattled, Premier Doug Ford is feeling the heat over his refusal to testify at the federal Emergencies Act inquiry — and losing his cool.
Ford said it was “unreal” for Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser to criticize him for going to court to avoid appearing at the hearings probing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s actions to end the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protests in Ottawa.
“As the public saw, I was out there non-stop speaking to the people … he was hiding in his basement,” Ford said Thursday after Fraser reminded him former premiers Mike Harris, Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne testified at various inquiries and court cases.
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told her counterpart in the Ontario Provincial Police that the federal government could ask them for a letter of support for the Emergencies Act after it had been invoked.
Text messages between Commissioner Lucki and OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique were tabled at the inquiry studying the use of the sweeping legislation on Thursday.
… Commissioner Lucki’s texts also show that she twice asked Commissioner Carrique about using a different messaging app that she said does “not store deleted messages.”
OPP head defends comments that ‘Freedom Convoy’ was national security threat
Carrique testified at the public inquiry Thursday, where he clarified that he agrees there were no credible national security threats. He said the word “threat” was used to indicate that something could potentially happen, and that the situation called for further analysis.
“This is talking from a strategic level: What are the risks that need to be taken into consideration when making decisions and developing plans?” he said.
“The word ‘potential’ is almost immaterial. It’s like saying that there’s a threat of rain today. Does it change the situation when you say there’s a potential threat of rain today? I would suggest to you it does not. What is required is further analysis of that threat.”
Not much of a defense.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation provided support to the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) as it struggled to deal with the truck convoy protest that paralyzed the nation’s capital last winter, according to a document tabled before the public inquiry investigating the federal government’s response to the protest.
Confidential minutes of the Ottawa Police Services Board presented to the Public Order Emergency Commission inquiry show that, during an in-camera discussion on Feb. 11, members of the Ottawa Police Service, including Chief of Police Peter Sloly and Deputy Chief of Police Steve Bell, briefed members of the board on the demonstrations.
Feds ‘lost confidence’ in Ottawa police, Lucki told OPP in texts released at inquiry
The text messages exchanged between Carrique and Lucki on Feb. 5, in which the RCMP commissioner also said she was having a hard time trying to calm down federal cabinet ministers seeing “bouncing castles in downtown Ottawa,” were submitted to the public inquiry.
OTTAWA—A judge leading the federal inquiry into the Liberal government’s use of a special emergency law to end the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests has agreed to hear evidence from Canada’s spy agency at a secret hearing.
In a ruling made public late Wednesday, Justice Paul Rouleau said the federal government asked for a secret hearing — behind closed doors and without other parties present — in order for his commission counsel to examine employees of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service on evidence related to the convoy protest that the agency claims is classified.
It all centres around evidence not yet tabled at the inquiry. And it is unclear what is the subject of the CSIS intelligence that the spy agency wants to protect.
What do they have to hide?
As far as we know, King Charles III is not planning to imprison Premier Doug Ford for something he said in the Ontario legislature.
Given that, it’s absurd for Ford to invoke parliamentary privilege to avoid testifying before the public inquiry examining whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to end the Freedom Convoy protest was justified.
The Ottawa Police Services superintendent led the mission that finally cleared the Freedom Convoy in February, and on Wednesday was being grilled by the counsel for the Public Order Emergency Commission, Frank Au, on the impact the government’s proclamation of an emergency had on his plans.
Bernier said the invocation of the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 for the first time in Canadian history did not significantly impact the planning process for the operation that cleared the streets of protesters around Parliament Hill four days later. “The plan I was developing was based on existing authorities,” he told the commission. “I was satisfied we were going to have all the authorities we needed to take action.”
Premier Doug Ford has finally broken his silence about why he is refusing to testify at the public inquiry into the invoking of the Emergencies Act during the Ottawa “Freedom Convoy” protest.
Ford — who has ducked reporters and opposition MPPs since it emerged the commission of inquiry has summoned him and former solicitor general Sylvia Jones to appear — faced the music Wednesday.
“This is the federal inquiry into the federal government’s use of the federal Emergencies Act,” the premier said during the morning question period in the legislature.
Unnamed foreign “adversaries” may have leveraged the Canadian “freedom movement” protests to advance their own interests, a newly-disclosed intelligence report suggest.
According to previously secret assessments by the Ontario Provincial Police’s (OPP) intelligence branch, the “available information” on Feb. 19 suggested that foreign actors may have pushed support for the movement, which fueled the convoy blockades in Ottawa and across the country, “to protect or enhance their own strategic economic and political interests.”
Again? First they did then they didn’t, now they did! Anything for Justin!
