According to text message exchanges submitted to the Emergencies Act inquiry, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s communications director was “encouraging” journalists to investigate who the convoy protesters were before their arrival in Ottawa and where their crowd-sourced funds came from, apparently without knowing if there were any particular concerns to be unearthed.
“I’ve been encouraging journalists to take a closer look at who these people are (and where three mil comes from),” Alexander Cohen wrote to Trudeau adviser Mary-Liz Power on Jan. 25. The “three mil” is a reference to the millions in donations collected by the Freedom Convoy on GoFundMe by that date.
“Obviously a light touch given the portfolio,” he added.
The text messages were entered as evidence at the Public Order Emergency Commission on Nov. 21.
In response to Cohen, Power asked if “there’s anything to be found in that gofundme?”
Cohen said, “I think it’s worth looking,” noting that he had “put” a named journalist on the issue.
“She’s obsessed with this kinda stuff,” he said.
“Nice. I’ll look into it too on our end,” Power replied.
Only a few messages were filed as evidence in a single document, which was a screenshot of a cellphone chat. At the top of the chat between the two, Power had sent a tweet from a columnist of a major newspaper who cited a quote that said, “I would like to see our own January 6 event.”
The “January 6 event” refers to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The quote was in reference to a Twitter post from another journalist who posted a link to a YouTube video while commenting: “Self-described bigots call on fellow travellers to go Ottawa for #freedomconvoy arrival on Saturday.” The video has since been removed.
“I’m sure you’ve seen this but flagging,” wrote Power.
‘Get in on Growing Narrative’
The later parts of the text exchange between Cohen and Power had been released earlier by the commission, as reported by The Epoch Times.A few hours after Power told Cohen her team would look into the issue of working with journalists, she wrote: “Got quick responses, people are into it.”
She provided Cohen with the message she had sent her team on the matter.
“Hi, I just had a chat with Alex at PS [Public Safety] who had a bit of an interesting idea. As you saw in the pod goals chat, the truckers convoy and some of their more extreme comments (IE calling for a Jan 6 style insurrection) are getting more coverage in media,” Power wrote.
“I think there could be an opportunity to get in on this growing narrative of the truckers,” she added, and mentioned research being conducted by the “LRB” on the convoy “backers.”
“LRB” is presumably the Liberal Research Bureau, a taxpayer-funded organ that supports Liberal Party MPs.
“My thoughts of the framing here would be similar to what the PM/Blair said last year when Jan. 6th occurred,” said Power, referring to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair.
Cohen responded to Power that his boss, Minister Mendicino, was supportive of the idea, but wanted to wait a day or two.
“There’s a danger if we come down too hard, they might push out the crazies,” said Cohen.
“I think that’s fair. Apparently global & others are working on stories, maybe see how those land,” replied Power.
