During the Freedom Convoy protest that took place in downtown Ottawa in early 2022, Public Safety Canada issued a false bulletin claiming that protesters were ransacking federal office buildings, according to records obtained through an access to information request.
On June 5, Alexander Cohen, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, said the department had no involvement in the bulletin sent out by the Government Operations Centre, which is a division of Public Safety Canada.
“The minister’s office does not direct the Government Operations Centre,” said Cohen.
According to a Blacklock’s Reporter article on June 6, the centre issued the “faked security bulletin” at 3:54 p.m. Ottawa local time on Jan. 28, 2022, the first day of the protest outside Parliament Hill.
“We have received confirmation that protesters have started to enter office buildings in the Ottawa downtown core and are allegedly causing damage,” the bulletin said. “As a result, Minto Place is going into weekend lockdown mode (all entrance doors will be locked) effective immediately.”
There were no incidents that involved protesters in office buildings. However, Public Safety would not explain the source of the disinformation when it said on June 5 that it had nothing to do with the disinformation.
Seeking to Discredit the Protesters
Meanwhile, departmental records released through the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) showed that government staff sought to discredit the protesters as being violent even if the allegations were false.
“Some of their more extreme comments, i.e. calling for a January 6 style insurrection, are getting more coverage in the media,” government staff wrote in a Jan. 24, 2022, text. “There could be an opportunity to get in on this growing narrative of the truckers.”
One aide wrote, “There’s a danger that if we come down too hard they might push out the crazies.” Another aide replied, “That’s fair.”
Mendicino had also earlier testified at the Commons public safety committee, on Feb. 25, 2022, that he had personally contacted certain unnamed news reporters and warned them to use caution when dealing with the Freedom Convoy.
“As for journalists, trust me, I reached out to some of them and urged them to be very careful,” Mendicino told the committee.
Allegations
Several media outlets acted on the allegations that the protesters were violent. In a Feb. 1, 2022, letter to the Commons Speaker, the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery expressed concerns that the protest wasn’t safe.
“Some of our members have been harassed by protesters of the truck convoy in the last few days and we cannot afford to be left exposed without protection for hours outside the building,” wrote Catherine Levesque of the National Post, then-president of the press gallery. However, Levesque provided no examples.
CBC-TV was so concerned that it provided security guards to protect reporters assigned to cover the protest.
“At CBC, in order to go out you needed one-to-one security guards,” reporter Judy Trinh told the audience at a March 8, 2022, seminar at Carleton University.
“Your camera would have a security guard and the reporter would have a security guard,” she said. “This was a real threat.”
‘National Emergency’
On Feb. 14, 2022, Public Safety Canada issued a news release stating that the federal government had declared a public order emergency to end “the occupation of the city of Ottawa.”
The government said it was working with the provinces and municipalities “to get the current situation under control and end the ongoing illegal blockades and occupations taking place across the country.”
“In order to declare a public order emergency, the Emergencies Act requires that there be an emergency that arises from threats to the security of Canada that are so serious as to be a national emergency,” said the news release.
“Threats to the security of Canada may include the threat or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property for the purpose of achieving a political or ideological objective.”
However, internal reports from Public Safety Canada itself said there was no evidence of violence by Freedom Convoy supporters in Ottawa.
The daily security update issued by the Government Operations Centre on Feb. 14, 2022, the day cabinet invoked the Emergences Act, described the protest as small, peaceful, and having little impact on federal government operations.
“Approximately 10 people on Parliament Hill and approximately 100 on the surrounding streets,” said the updated obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) said in an assessment, “No concerns at this time.”
‘No Serious Violence’
Meanwhile, Mendicino reiterated to reporters on Feb, 16, 2022, that the protest was angry and violent, saying, “At the core of the movement is anger, animosity and in far too many cases violence.”
“What we’re beginning to see emerge are the hallmarks of a sophisticated and capable organization of a small number of individuals but with a steel resolve driven by an extreme ideology that would seek to overthrow the existing government,” said Mendicino. “There’s a real danger in trivializing and diminishing what’s going on.”
An internal email from RCMP Deputy Commissioner Brian Brennan on Feb. 21, 2022, said “there was no serious violence in Ottawa” related to the Freedom Convoy protest.
Brennan’s assessment echoed similar conclusions by CSIS and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
CSIS director David Vigneault said the convoy and its supporters across the country never “constituted a threat to the security of Canada,” according to a summary of his interview with the POEC.
OPP Intelligence Bureau chief Pat Morris told the commission on Oct. 19, 2022, that “the lack of violent crime was shocking” considering the protest in totality.Peter Wilson, Isaac Teo, and Noé Chartier contributed to this report.
