OTTAWA – The “freedom convoy” benefited from the escape of the police services and the sympathy of the police, according to the lawyer of certain organizers of the movement which occupied the federal capital last winter.
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“Several of the ex-agents were on line and bringing intelligence … The Freedom Convoy was receiving information leaks from the police,” reads the summary of the interview conducted by Keith Wilson, filed in evidence Wednesday before the Commission of Inquiry on Emergency Measures.
Mr. Wilson offered more details about the staggering allegations after his testimony to a group of reporters.
According to him, the police leaks were “constant and extensive”, operational in nature, and could detail police behavior on “who was going to do what, how and where”.
Mr. Wilson claimed, without presenting any supporting evidence, that the leaks originated from the RCMP, the Ottawa Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Canadian Intelligence Service.
These leaks could, for example, detail the place and time of a planned police raid.
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Collaboration
During his testimony, the lawyer insisted on his efforts to collaborate with the police, and underlines that the agents on the ground were sympathetic to the demonstrators.
According to him, the police realized the problem of leaks, they began to launch false operations to find the source. Nevertheless, the convoy benefited from intelligence “throughout” the crisis, according to Me Wilson.
Mr. Wilson explained that the convoy benefited from the resources and knowledge of ex-police officers, ex-soldiers and ex-agents of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
During the crisis, former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said these individuals posed a major risk, as these individuals had unparalleled organizational, logistical and fundraising abilities.
It is for example a former sniper within the RCMP, assigned to the security of the Prime Minister until the fall of 2020, Daniel Bulford who ensured the security of the convoy.
Overthrow the government.
The convoy’s intelligence expert, Tom Marazzo, was a former captain in the Canadian Armed Forces who worked in National Defense and RCMP intelligence units.
Mr. Marazzo is a member of the group Police on Guard for Thee. During the crisis, he invited the opposition parties and the Governor General to sit down with the organizers of the convoy in order to form a coalition.
This is what was provided for in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that some of the demonstrators wanted the Governor General to sign in order to overthrow the government, an “absurd” document, according to Me Wilson who declared today never having supported it.
Before the commission today, Mr Marazzo pleaded that he was ill and dehydrated and that he had misspoken the day he made the statement calling for the formation of a coalition. He claimed never to have supported the memorandum of understanding (MOU).
The ex-soldier also defended the founder of the far-right group Diagolon, Jeremy MacKenzie, whom he presents as a comedian.
The man was arrested in September on a Canada-wide warrant for assault, pointing a firearm, recklessly using a restricted weapon and mischief. He had a day earlier threatened to rape the wife of the leader of the opposition, Pierre Poilièvre.
Also ex-military, Jeremy MacKenzie advocates race war, on his Telegram channel, with the aim of founding a white America from Alaska to Florida. An arsenal of weapons was found at his home in January, then the Diagolon logo appeared on military equipment discovered in Couts, Alberta, on the sidelines of the border blockade that paralyzed this sector in February.