The intelligence chief for the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) told his superior he had concerns about information requests on social movements his unit was receiving from political leaders and other actors during the time of the Freedom Convoy protest last winter.
The OPP’s Provincial Operations Intelligence Bureau (POIB) “is increasingly receiving requests for information, intelligence, open source scrapes, background checks etc on a wide array of societal actors,” wrote Supt. Pat Morris, who oversees the POIB, in an email to OPP Deputy Commissioner Chuck Cox on Feb. 2.
“Many of these entities are social movements that have perspectives that diverge from the mainstream – they may not be engaged in criminal activity, nor do we have grounds to believe or suspect that they are.”
Morris said the requests were coming from internal and external clients at an “escalating rate.”
Morris’ email to Cox was filed as evidence with the Public Order Emergency Commission, which is examining the Trudeau government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act in February to deal with cross-country protests and border blockades.
The email was sent on Feb. 2, a few days after the trucker-led Freedom Convoy protest had arrived in downtown Ottawa.
The communication shows Morris told his superior he had ethical concerns with the nature of requests received, but expressed a greater concern at the end of his email.
“Perhaps my biggest concern is police leaders and municipal, provincial and national government leaders demanding/requesting information to satisfy a request without understanding the wherefore or the why,” he said.
On concerns regarding ethics, Morris said “several requests do not relate to the parameters that the state/police should consider in intelligence operations.”
“The potential ‘targets’ are not engaged in criminal activity nor do we have reasonable grounds to believe that they will be,“ he wrote. ”They may oppose governmental policy and engage in protest.”
Morris also expressed professional concerns in relation to how the requests were being received, through email chains with “partial sentences” and individuals “merely utilizing the forward button and expressing urgency.”
“As a result, the request and rationale are provided out of context and with not [sic] parameters in law.”
Morris provided an example of such a request in which a regional health office had provided input and the activity of concern was actually not occurring.
In order to address the issues, Morris told Cox he was taking action to stem the flow of requests and responses.
“Often, in times of social turmoil, anxiety breeds fear and demands for information,” Morris said, adding that previous such scenarios, such as around 9/11, led to commissions of inquiries.
The Emergencies Act inquiry heard from Supt. Morris on Oct. 19.
“I was concerned by comments made publicly by public figures and in the media that I believed were not premised in fact.”
