Minister Repeats False Claim Convoy Protesters Were Linked to Ottawa Arson

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino rises during question period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Feb. 17, 2022. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino repeated the false claim that Freedom Convoy protesters were linked to an Ottawa arson incident as he spoke during a meeting of the joint committee reviewing the invocation of the Emergencies Act.

Mendicino made the comments on April 26 after Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi asked if he recalled the convoy “honking at all hours” during the convoy’s three-week-long protest demanding the lifting of COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.

“Sure, but it was far worse, and criminal. And that’s one of the reasons why hundreds of charges were laid, again, decisions taken independently by police,” replied Mendicino.

“When residents can’t get to work, when they can’t take their children to school, when seniors can’t get around because public transportation can’t get to them, when people who live in apartment buildings find that their front doors are locked and that fires are set in the hallways and corridors...”

Mendicino was cut off by a point of order raised by Conservative MP Glen Motz.

“That statement right there has been proven false by the Ottawa Police Service and there is no connection to the protesters whatsoever. And for this minister to suggest that is absolutely unacceptable at this committee,” said Motz.

In recent weeks, the OPS announced it had charged two men for deliberately setting a fire in a downtown Ottawa apartment building on Feb. 6. Police said there was no information the men were “involved in any way with the Convoy protest which was going on when this arson took place.”

In addition to Mendicino, other political figures such as Naqvi and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson have spread the false claim that protesters were responsible for the fire.

Transparency

The Tories are expressing concern that so far the government is indicating it will assert cabinet confidence to avoid disclosing the underlying information it used and produced regarding the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 in response to the protest.

Civil liberties groups have also questioned the government’s commitment to transparency and accountability in its official review of the measures.

During his questioning, Motz cautioned Mendicino against the “stonewalling” of information and raised the issue of public trust due to the spreading of false information.

“One of the things that was intriguing to me is during the actual convoy protests here, you retweeted some information that was later shown to be completely false, completely inaccurate. So in your role as the Minister of Public Safety, how can Canadians now trust that the information you relied upon to invoke the act in the first place was accurate and appropriately reliable?” Motz said, without specifying what false information he was referring to.

Mendicino didn’t directly answer the question nor did he defend tweeting inaccurate information.

As the convoy response has come under parliamentary scrutiny in recent months, other federal ministers have been found to have made comments about protestors that were later contradicted, such as their funding sources and alleged violent intentions.

Minister of Crown-Indigenous relations Marc Miller had tweeted that loaded firearms were found at the site of the Ottawa protest during the police clearing operation in mid-February, but the Ottawa Police Service interim chief Steve Bell said before a House committee in April that wasn’t the case.

Mendicino would also not answer questions about whether he received written advice about invoking the act or if the Ontario government asked for the act to be invoked.

‘Overthrow’

During his opening remarks, Mendicino repeated the government’s assertion that the protesters sought to “overthrow” the government, whether through peaceful or violent means.

The minister made reference to the “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) that had been posted on the protest organizer website Canada Unity, which suggested protesters should league with the Senate and the Governor-General to remove the Trudeau government and lift pandemic restrictions.

On Feb. 8, the MOU was pulled from the website, with its originator stating it was withdrawn “as we do not want any unintended interpretations to continue.”

“We represent the voice of many Canadians who desire to have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms upheld ... Our sole desire with the MOU was to have a document where Canadians could peacefully express their displeasure with current (COVID-19) mandates, and express their desire to be free.”

Mendicino also repeated words that Pat King reportedly uttered to claim that some protesters wanted a violent insurrection, saying “The only way that this is going to be solved is with bullets.”

In a video reportedly posted online on Dec. 16, King can be heard saying the phrase, yet it’s unclear in the edited video what “this” refers to.

In an interview with CBC’s Fifth Estate in February, King addressed the comments and said the clip was “hack journalism” and missing context that didn’t show what he said beforehand.

King is still in custody after being charged with a number of offences relating to his participation in the Ottawa protest. Despite being a visible figure during the convoy protests, King is not one of the Freedom Convoy organizers, according to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which represented several of the convoy leaders.

Organizers of the Freedom Convoy repeatedly maintained the movement was committed to remaining peaceful.