The FBI has issued a security bulletin falsely claiming freedom convoys raiding government buildings: documents

During the Freedom Convoy protest that took place in downtown Ottawa in early 2022, Public Safety Canada issued a false bulletin alleging protesters looted federal office buildings, according to records obtained through a request for information access.

On June 5, Alexander Cohen, spokesman for Public Security Secretary Marco Mendicino, said the department was not involved in the bulletin issued by the Government operational centera division of Public Safety Canada.

“The cabinet of the minister does not direct the Government Operations Center,” said Cohen.

According to a June 6 article in Blacklock’s Reporter, on January 28, 2022, the first day of the protest outside Parliament Hill, at 3:54 p.m. Ottawa local time, the center issued the “fake security bulletin.”

“We have received confirmation that protesters have entered office buildings in downtown Ottawa and reportedly caused damage,” the bulletin said. “As a result, Minto Place will enter weekend lockdown mode (all entry doors will be locked) effective immediately.”

There were no incidents involving 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.

Trying to discredit the protesters

Meanwhile, department records released through the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) showed that government officials tried to discredit the protesters as violent, even if the allegations were false.

“Some of their more extreme comments, namely calls for a Jan. 6-style uprising, are getting more media coverage,” government officials wrote in a Jan. 24, 2022 text. “There could be an opportunity to address this growing story of the truck drivers.”

An aide wrote, “There’s a danger that if we come down too hard, they could push the crazies out.” Another assistant replied, “That’s fair.”

Mendicino also had before testified to the Commons Public Safety Committee, on February 25, 2022, that he had personally contacted certain unnamed news reporters and warned them to exercise caution when dealing with the Freedom Convoy.

“As far as journalists are concerned, believe me, I have contacted some of them and urged them to be very careful,” Mendicino told the commission.

Allegations

Several media outlets responded to the allegations that the protesters were violent. In a February 1, 2022 letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery expressed concern that the protest was not safe.

“Some of our members have been harassed by truck convoy demonstrators in recent days and we cannot afford to remain outside the building for hours without protection,” wrote Catherine Levesque of the National Post, then president of the press. gallery. However, Levesque gave no examples.

CBC-TV was so concerned that it provided security guards to protect reporters assigned to cover the protest.

“At CBC, you needed one-on-one security guards to go out,” reporter Judy Trinh told the audience at a March 8, 2022 seminar at Carleton University.

“Your camera would have a guard and the reporter would have a guard,” she said. “This was a real threat.”

‘National emergency’

On February 14, 2022, Public Safety Canada issued a press release stating that the federal government had declared a state of public order emergency to end “the occupation of the City of Ottawa”.

The government said it was working with the provinces and municipalities “to take control of the current situation and end the ongoing illegal blockades and occupations taking place across the country”.

“In order to declare a public order emergency, the emergency law requires that there be an emergency arising from threats to the security of Canada that are so serious as to constitute a national emergency,” the press release said.

“A threat to the security of Canada may include the threat or use of serious force against persons or property in pursuit of 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 from the Government Operations Center on Feb. 14, 2022, the day the Cabinet invoked the Emergences Act, described the protest as small, peaceful, and with little impact on federal government operations.

“About 10 people on Parliament Hill and about 100 in the surrounding streets,” said the update obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) said in an assessment, “No worries at this point.”

‘No serious violence’

Meanwhile, Mendicino reiterated to reporters on February 16, 2022 that the protest was angry and violent, saying, “The core of the movement is anger, hostility and in far too many cases, violence.”

“What we are beginning to see emerging are the hallmarks of a sophisticated and capable organization of a small number of individuals, but with steely determination driven by an extreme ideology that would seek to overthrow the existing government,” Mendicino said. “There is a real danger in trivializing and minimizing what is going on.”

An internal email from RCMP Deputy Commissioner Brian Brennan on February 21, 2022 said that “there was no serious violence in Ottawa” related to the Freedom Convoy protest.

Brennan’s assessment echoed similar conclusions from CSIS and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

CSIS director David Vigneault said the convoy and its supporters across the country never “posed a threat to the security of Canada,” according to a summary of his interview with the POEC.

Pat Morris, chief of the OPP Intelligence Bureau, told the committee on October 19, 2022 that “the lack of violent crime was shocking” given the protest in its entirety.

Peter Wilson, Isaac Teo and Noé Chartier contributed to this report.