Public Safety Department Censored ‘Hundreds of Pages’ of Freedom Convoy Documents, Says Bloc MP

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino rises during question period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on May 12, 2022. Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s department censored “hundreds” of pages of documents related to security measures taken against the Freedom Convoy in February, according to Bloc Québécois MP Rhéal Fortin.

Public Safety provided the documents to the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency after being ordered to do so by the committee in May. Fortin told the committee on Oct. 6 that it “needs to address” why large portions of the Public Safety documents have been censored.

“You have these entire pages with massive redactions. [We’re] talking about hundreds of pages of redacted documents,” Fortin said, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“What do we do with this?” said Fortin. “I don’t know what is hidden here. I don’t know why this information is hidden.”

On May 31, the committee requested that “all security assessments and legal opinions which the government relied upon” in deciding that the Freedom Convoy constituted a “national emergency” be provided. The government invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, allowing police to use extraordinary measures to clear protesters from Ottawa’s downtown core while granting banks the power to freeze accounts belonging to convoy members and supporters.

Fortin said the censored documents were “unacceptable,” and called for the individuals who produced the documents to appear before the committee to explain the reasoning behind the redactions.

“We are entitled to an answer as to why these things are blacked out,” he said.

The Epoch Times reached out to Public Safety for comment on the redactions but didn’t immediately hear back.

‘Hampering’ Committee Work

Liberal MP Rachel Bendayan said she doesn’t see why it would be helpful to have a Public Safety representative appear before the committee to explain the redactions, saying the person wouldn’t be able to provide detailed information.

“Whoever will testify will not be in a position to tell us substantively what supports that redaction,” she said. “We'll still be here in 2026 If we keep focusing on this issue.”

Senator Claude Carignan argued the redacted documents are hindering the committee from carrying out a thorough investigation.

“We just can’t wait until the end of our hearings to then get an explanation and see if there’s some way to clean things up or open up more information than what we have received,” said Carignan.

“As an example, I use these documents to ask the witnesses questions,” he added. “There might be areas that are blacked out that I could use, but I can’t wait until the very end [when] the witnesses have all left.”

Carignan added that the redactions are “really hampering us in our work.”

The public inquiry into the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act will begin on Oct. 13 and run throughout November, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, key Freedom Convoy organizers, and prominent cabinet members expected to testify.

Correction: The headline of this article initially misstated the the number of document pages. The Epoch Times regrets the error.