The Royal Canadian Mounted Police informed the federal government in mid-February that people associated with terrorist groups, white supremacists or suggesting violent opposition to health measures were in the occupation of Ottawa, emails show.
“While not all individuals who participate in Freedom Convoy protests embrace ideologically motivated violent extremism (DVE) thinking, the presence of DLE adherents has been noted a few times in these protests,” an RCMP official wrote to a senior federal government official on February 14.
The list records the presence, on a truck, of a flag of the Three Percenters (III%), anti-immigration and anti-Islam group, which has been on Canada’s list of terrorist entities since 2021. We also note the passage to Ottawa of members of Diagolon, a group that “increasingly uses violent rhetoric against mandatory vaccinations”, as well as the presence of Canada First, “a white nationalist group” whose adherents “have been accused of launching rocks to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the election campaign”.
The duty had reported the presence of extremist remarks within the Freedom Convoy, including a strange manifesto by the group Canada Unity evoking the resignation of the Canadian government, and which was used to justify the federal emergency.
This RCMP email, revealed to the Rouleau commission on Tuesday, was sent just hours before the Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act. It is signed by the RCMP’s Director General of Intelligence, Adriana Poloz, and is addressed to the Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet in the Privy Council Office, Mike MacDonald.
A request just before the law
Earlier that day, Prime Minister Trudeau’s national security adviser had asked the RCMP to prepare a report on the level of threat posed by the Freedom Convoy, in an email titled “urgent.” .
“I want an assessment of the threats posed by these blockages. The people involved. Arms. The motivations,” writes Jody Thomas. His message was sent around noon on February 14. The former Deputy Minister of National Defense had held this position for only a month.
“Clearly it’s not just COVID, it’s a threat to democracy and the rule of law,” she added as a comment. She clarified her idea in another email, a few minutes later: “It is a national threat to national interests and institutions. By people who don’t care or understand democracy. Who prepare to be violent. Who are motivated by anti-government sentiment. »
Similar judgments against the Freedom Convoy circulated at the highest levels of the federal government during this period, show emails filed in evidence before the Emergency Commission on Tuesday. “How do we know that the majority is peaceful? They are determined to harm people to achieve their goals, like honking and [émettre] diesel fumes,” wrote an employee of the Privy Council Office, again on February 14.
Documents released Monday during the Rouleau commission indicate that the Canadian Intelligence and Security Service (CSIS) had found no threat to national security in the Freedom Convoy movement. However, CSIS uses a narrow definition of this term, referring specifically to the influence of foreign governments or the risk of violence motivated by ideological objectives.
Brenda Lucki testifies
The big boss of the RCMP, Brenda Lucki, testified Tuesday before Judge Paul Rouleau. The Commissioner downplayed some of her past statements that were revealed during the public hearings.
For example, her message that the Trudeau government was losing faith in the Ottawa police was, she said, just her general impression from meetings with federal officials.
Mme Lucki insisted that the RCMP had a role misunderstood by some in Ottawa, since the federal police are not responsible for enforcing the law in Ontario or Quebec, provinces which have their own provincial police force. “We are not the jurisdictional police. We have no jurisdiction in Ontario,” explained the commissioner.
The RCMP sent 50 officers to support the municipal police forces, but did not understand what its share should be in the 1,800 officers requested by Ottawa to resolve the crisis. According to Mme Lucki, it was up to the Ontario Provincial Police to exhaust their resources before asking the RCMP for more.
Like several other testimonies heard before this commission, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials denied any political interference in police operations.