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This report is from CBC which is Justin Trudeau's biggest fan. Despite criminal behaviour on a few occasions, embarrassing behaviour on a few other occasions, and very questionable decisions (like refusing to name the 11 MPs who were financed by China in the last elections), the CBC has never found any cause to criticize Trudeau. In fact, they very rarely even ask him real questions. I have a few questions which you will find in the report below.
Trudeau's national security adviser felt convoy protest posed
'a threat to democracy:' documents
This is CBC's headline and it is obvious that they are trying to justify Trudeau's use of the Emergencies Act which his father, Pierre Trudeau, also used in 1970. "'How far will you go', Trudeau the senior was asked". "Just watch me," he replied.
Catharine Tunney ·
CBC News ·
Posted: Nov 15, 2022 10:52 AM ET |
Inquiry into use of Emergencies Act underway in Ottawa
The history-making Public Order Emergency Commission, which is reviewing the federal government's use of emergency powers last winter, is hearing testimony in Ottawa. The inquiry is expected to last six weeks.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security and intelligence adviser believed that the convey protesters posed a "threat to democracy," according to a document tabled at the Emergencies Act inquiry.
The comments offer a glimpse of the advice cabinet was receiving as it invoked the Emergencies Act for the very first time in the legislation's history to end the convoy protests that blocked two trade corridors and gridlocked downtown Ottawa last winter.
In an email presented at the Public Order Emergency Commission Tuesday, Jody Thomas, Trudeau's national security intelligence adviser, writes that she's looking for a threat assessment.
No-one has actually heard of Jody Thomas before today. What are her credentials?
The email was sent just before noon on Feb. 14 - the day the government announced it was invoking the Emergencies Act and around the time the prime minister was briefing premiers.
The timing here is critical, and so is the content of what Trudeau was briefing the premiers. CBC didn't ask those questions. Was Trudeau looking for advice, or had he already made up his mind and was looking for justification?
"The characters involved. The weapons. The motivation. Clearly this isn't just COVID and is a threat to democracy and rule of law," wrote Thomas, whose title is often shortened to 'NSIA'.
"Could I get an assessment please … It's a very short fuse."
Workers use heavy equipment to remove temporary fencing and supplies from the Parliament Hill area
in Ottawa, Feb. 23, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
A few minutes later, Thomas wrote an email to senior government officials warning that "this is about a national threat to national interest and institutions.
"By people who do not care about or understand democracy. Who are preparing to be violent. Who are motivated by anti-government sentiment."
These are astonishing assumptions Thomas made in 'a few minutes.' How did she know what level of democratic literacy the truckers and their supporters possessed? Is her assumption based on the fact that the caravan started in Alberta? Are all Albertans incapable of understanding government?
How did she know that they were preparing to be violent? In the weeks-long protest, there were hardly any incidents of violence. No one challenged the police at any time.
She may be correct that the motivation was largely anti-government, but, on the other hand, the truckers went to Ottawa to talk to the government, not to overthrow them. No one from the government ever actually talked to the truckers except the Ottawa Police who had worked out an agreement with the truckers. That agreement was replaced by the Emergencies Act. The Ottawa Police Chief, Peter Sloly, resigned the very next day.
The motivation was to change some of the remarkably stupid policies that the government had enacted.
CSIS didn't feel convoy protests constituted a national security threat under the law: documents
Proposed meeting between federal representatives, protesters was unlikely to work, public servant says
The request for a threat assessment made its way to the RCMP's Adriana Poloz, executive director of intelligence and international policing.
Her assessment said that ideologically motivated violent extremism "adherents" had been linked to the convoy. She pointed to a Three Percenters flag spotted on a truck taking part in the Ottawa protest and said that Diagolon members also attended that protest.
The Three Percenters are members of a listed terrorist entity in Canada. While members of the Diagolon online community claim the organization is satirical, the RCMP's assessment said prominent members have "espoused increasingly violent rhetoric opposing vaccine mandates."
The report also noted that the majority of protesters had been peaceful.
I don't know anyone who has ever heard of The Three Percenters or Diagolon, and I have my ear pretty close to the ground on things like this. But one flag, seen once, on one truck, does not a rebellion make.
RCMP questioned on chain of command
Commission lawyer Gordon Cameron raised the emails Tuesday as part of his questions to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and Deputy Commissioner Michael Duheme.
"How does it happen that when the NSIA wants a security threat [analysis], it doesn't go through one of you, but goes directly to somebody in an intelligence directorate that frankly none of us had seen before we saw this email?" he asked.
For the significance of this, let me relate a story that preceeded the Iraq war. Looking for a reason to invade Iraq, Dick Cheney called a CIA agent who was writing a report on Iraq. Cheney told her to include Weapons of Mass Destruction in her report. Credit the agent - she told Cheney that it was illegal for him to call her directly and told him to call her boss.
The report, God bless her, did not include any mention of WMDs, however, Cheney had the report rerouted directly to himself where he modified the report to include WMDs which then justified Americas attack on Iraq. 150,000 civilians were killed in that war.
The report, God bless her, did not include any mention of WMDs, however, Cheney had the report rerouted directly to himself where he modified the report to include WMDs which then justified Americas attack on Iraq. 150,000 civilians were killed in that war.
This was the work of Deep State, and it kept weapons inventories moving for 8 years.
It's a well-known philosophy in the government that 'It's a lot easier to get forgiveness than permission'. I confess I have used that myself in my Public Service career.
Duheme said that while it isn't ideal, sometimes people in government reach out for information directly if they have a relationship with the person providing it.
Another astonishing statement! It hints very loudly, that Thomas had some relationship with Poloz. Does that mean that she knew Poloz would say exactly what Thomas wanted her to say? Remember the timing here - it took only a few minutes for Thomas to make up her mind, which would suggest that Poloz responded almost instantly.
Cameron pointed out that the NSIA was advising government on whether to use extraordinary emergency powers
"This was a very time-pressured situation. It might be understandable that corners were cut or direct contact was used," said Cameron.
"Were you alert to the fact this was a threat assessment going from your people to the Privy Council Office in connection with the invocation of the Emergencies Act?"
Duheme said he wasn't sure if he was briefed beforehand and said it's possible Poloz's response to Thomas relied on assessments the RCMP had written already.
Answers that lack a great deal of confidence.
Brendan Miller, a lawyer for some convoy organizers, asked Rob Stewart, the deputy minister of the federal Public Safety department during the protests, about the advice the federal cabinet was getting about the convoy at the time.
Miller showed Stewart a document that showed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) didn't believe the self-styled Freedom Convoy constituted a threat to national security, according to the definition in its enabling law.
CSIS didn't see convoy as a threat: docs
The document, a summary of an interview CSIS Director David Vigneault gave the commission, showed the intelligence agency had concerns about invoking the Emergencies Act.
"[Vigneault] felt an obligation to clearly convey the service's position that there did not exist a threat to the security of Canada as defined by the service's legal mandate," said the document.
Stewart said the government would have a broader interpretation of what constitutes a national security threat.
And yet, did the government's broader definition actually fall within CSIS's more narrow definition?
Jody Thomas, national security and intelligence advisor to the prime minister, arrives at the west block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
"The cabinet is making that decision and their interpretation of the law is what governs here," said Stewart.
"And their decision was, evidently, the threshold was met."
"You have the RCMP, you have CSIS, you have the entire intelligence apparatus in the federal government and none of them said that this threshold was met, did they?" Miller asked Stewart.
"They weren't asked," Stewart said.
OMG! You can't be serious! The RCMP, CSIS, Ottawa Police, were not asked, but the advice of one obscure woman who appears to have talked very briefly to a friend as accepted carte blanche. That, in itself, should be enough to dump Trudeau.
The Public Order Emergency Commission is assessing whether the federal government met the legal threshold to invoke the Emergencies Act to clear Ottawa of protesters last winter.
Under the Emergencies Act, a public order emergency "arises from threats to the security of Canada that are so serious as to be a national emergency."
The act refers to CSIS's definition of threats, including serious violence against persons or property, espionage, foreign interference or an intent to overthrow the government by violence.
Unlike the 1970 October 'crisis', there were no murders, no kidnappings, no bombs exploding and no government was ever in danger of being overthrown.
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Duheme looks on as Commissioner Brenda Lucki responds to a question as they appear as witnesses at the Public Order Emergency Commission, Tuesday, November 15, 2022 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited issues with police enforcement when he announced his decision.
"It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law," he told a news conference.
Ottawa Police Chief Sloly said the situation was under control.
Under the Emergencies Act, a national emergency is "an urgent, temporary and critical situation that seriously endangers the health and safety of Canadians that cannot be effectively dealt with by the provinces or territories."
"It must be a situation that cannot be effectively dealt with by any other law of Canada."
Lucki and Duheme said they quickly became worried that the Ottawa police did not have a plan to end the convoy protest that occupied the capital last winter.
The pair also sat for an interview with commission lawyers in September. A summary of that conversation was entered into evidence Tuesday.
During that interview, Lucki said the RCMP became concerned during the week of Jan. 31 — the week after the first weekend of protest — that the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) did not have an overall operational plan to end the occupation of Ottawa.
But they did have a plan to manage the occupation, a plan that was trashed by the Emergencies Act.
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki details concerns with Ottawa Police Service resources during the convoy protests as she testifies at the Emergencies Act Inquiry.
Both Mounties said they needed to see a plan before committing more resources to Ottawa as similar anti-COVID-19 restrictions protests began to sprout in Western Canada and at the Windsor, Ont., border crossing.
Duheme told the commission lawyers that he joined a call with Ottawa officers on Jan. 31, where OPS indicated it wanted to launch an aggressive enforcement operation from Feb. 3-6.
"Duheme said he felt that OPS lacked the resources to conduct these operations and had neither the resources nor the plans to sustain them over the long term," said the interview summary.
"Lucki became concerned that OPS lacked a plan to use the RCMP and OPP resources that were then assisting OPS."
Lucki and Duheme said they never saw an overall operational plan prepared by the Ottawa police.
"It was not clear to them whether OPS lacked such a plan or was unwilling to share it with the RCMP," said their interview summary.
Wouldn''t you think they should know the answer to that?
Lucki also said it would have been inappropriate for her to interfere in Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly's planning and intelligence assessment processes.
It has been my contention right from the time Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act that his response was like that of a frightened little boy. This happens when a control freak loses control.
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