Trudeau seized excessive power over nonexistent ‘threat’, says intelligence chief
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in February seized unprecedented power due to the “threat of political violence” posed by the Freedom Convoy – but that threat never actually existed, a Canadian intelligence official revealed last week.
Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time ever on February 14th after a convoy of truckers descended on Ottawa to peacefully protest Trudeau’s heavy-handed COVID-19 mandates. The Emergencies Act allowed the prime minister to ban gatherings and protests, to wield law enforcement at will, to prohibit or regulate travel and to requisition personal property, including the seizure of private and corporate funds and bank accounts. The Trudeau government did indeed freeze the funds of political dissidents.
The justification for Trudeau seizing these excessive powers, according to the cabinet order, was in part based on “the threat or use of acts of serious violence” and “the potential for an increase in the level of unrest and violence that would further threaten the safety and security of Canadians.”
But according to a high-ranking intelligence official, there was never such a threat.
“Everybody was asking about extremism. We weren’t seeing much evidence of it,” Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Superintendent Pat Morris testified before a federal committee Wednesday.
“I was in a unique situation to understand what was transpiring,” he added. “So when I read accounts that the state of Russia had something to do with it, or that this was a result of American influence, either financially or ideologically, or that Donald Trump was behind it, or that it was un-Canadian, or that the people participating are un-Canadian, that they were not Canadian views and they are extremists, that’s problematic.”
Morris added that there was “no credible evidence” that there was a threat; in fact, it was “shocking” how little violence there was from the protesters.
“The lack of violent crime was shocking. . . . Even the arrests and charges, considering the whole thing in totality—I think there were 10 charges for violent crimes, six of which were against police officers,” he said.
The intelligence chief also weighed in on disinformation spread by Trudeau officials and state media outlets falsely accusing the Freedom Convoy protesters of being funded by foreign entities – including Russia – through the convoy’s GoFundMe campaign.
“The donations identified by CBC News are likely only a fraction of all the donations made by people outside of Canada,” wrote CBC reporter Elizabeth Thompson on February 10th in an article headlined “Convoy Protest Received Hundreds Of Donations That Appeared To Be From Abroad,” according to Western Standard.
In another story, Thompson wrote, “An analysis of GoFundMe donations by CBC News has revealed at least one-third of them had been made by donors who chose to remain anonymous or who listed names that were obviously fictitious or political commentary.”
It was based on these reports that Trudeau froze the assets of many involved with the protests, which his government expanded to include Trump supporters.
A month later, after the Emergencies Act was already invoked, Western Standard reported that CBC News retracted both stories as false, as well as another story alleging that Russian actors were involved.
Morris says there was no intelligence backing the reports in the first place.
“I saw media accounts [of foreign influence allegations], yes,” testified Morris. “I saw no information collected or intelligence produced in that regard . . . to support that.”
