“Criminalizing Dissent”

Commissioner Lucki Contemplated Dressing Soldiers in RCMP Uniforms During Freedom Convoy: Text Messages

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique on Feb. 13 that she was thinking about dressing military personnel in RCMP uniforms to increase police resources, according to text messages filed as evidence at the Public Order Emergency Commission.

“It’s funny you say that, because I was thinking maybe we use CAF [Canadian Armed Forces] but in our uniforms as unarmed Auxiliaries or Spl. Csts. [special constables] to supplement us.. in teams,” Lucki wrote.

Embattled and rattled, Premier Doug Ford is feeling the heat over his refusal to testify at the federal Emergencies Act inquiry — and losing his cool.

Ford said it was “unreal” for Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser to criticize him for going to court to avoid appearing at the hearings probing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s actions to end the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protests in Ottawa.

“As the public saw, I was out there non-stop speaking to the people … he was hiding in his basement,” Ford said Thursday after Fraser reminded him former premiers Mike Harris, Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne testified at various inquiries and court cases.

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told her counterpart in the Ontario Provincial Police that the federal government could ask them for a letter of support for the Emergencies Act after it had been invoked.

Text messages between Commissioner Lucki and OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique were tabled at the inquiry studying the use of the sweeping legislation on Thursday.

… Commissioner Lucki’s texts also show that she twice asked Commissioner Carrique about using a different messaging app that she said does “not store deleted messages.”

OPP head defends comments that ‘Freedom Convoy’ was national security threat

Carrique testified at the public inquiry Thursday, where he clarified that he agrees there were no credible national security threats. He said the word “threat” was used to indicate that something could potentially happen, and that the situation called for further analysis.

“This is talking from a strategic level: What are the risks that need to be taken into consideration when making decisions and developing plans?” he said.

“The word ‘potential’ is almost immaterial. It’s like saying that there’s a threat of rain today. Does it change the situation when you say there’s a potential threat of rain today? I would suggest to you it does not. What is required is further analysis of that threat.”

Not much of a defense.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation provided support to the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) as it struggled to deal with the truck convoy protest that paralyzed the nation’s capital last winter, according to a document tabled before the public inquiry investigating the federal government’s response to the protest.

Confidential minutes of the Ottawa Police Services Board presented to the Public Order Emergency Commission inquiry show that, during an in-camera discussion on Feb. 11, members of the Ottawa Police Service, including Chief of Police Peter Sloly and Deputy Chief of Police Steve Bell, briefed members of the board on the demonstrations.

As far as we know, King Charles III is not planning to imprison Premier Doug Ford for something he said in the Ontario legislature.

Given that, it’s absurd for Ford to invoke parliamentary privilege to avoid testifying before the public inquiry examining whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to end the Freedom Convoy protest was justified.

Premier Doug Ford has finally broken his silence about why he is refusing to testify at the public inquiry into the invoking of the Emergencies Act during the Ottawa “Freedom Convoy” protest.

Ford — who has ducked reporters and opposition MPPs since it emerged the commission of inquiry has summoned him and former solicitor general Sylvia Jones to appear — faced the music Wednesday.

“This is the federal inquiry into the federal government’s use of the federal Emergencies Act,” the premier said during the morning question period in the legislature.

Leaders from the Freedom Convoy would not have been able to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nor Governor General Mary Simon, but might have been able to secure a meeting with high-ranking officials in the federal government in exchange for an end to the occupation.

The proposal for a meeting was the subject of many discussions and emails between Feb. 10 to 13 between the Deputy Minister of Public Safety Canada, Rob Stewart, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officials, according to evidence presented to the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) on Tuesday.

The incident commander in charge of policing the protests in Ottawa last winter allowed protesters to park in front of Parliament Hill because he thought that would protect the rest of the city from disruptions, documents tabled with the Emergencies Act inquiry this morning say.

While Ottawa Police Insp. Russell Lucas told the Public Order Emergency Commission he was concerned about a January 6-type insurrectionist attack happening in Ottawa, he told the commission he did not believe allowing vehicles to park in front of Parliament Hill posed a risk because the House of Commons was not sitting that week and he felt he had enough officers to respond if protesters attempted to storm the Hill.

OTTAWA — MPs unanimously voted to demand answers from the Ontario Provincial Police on its “wildly different” testimony about the security threat posed by the Freedom Convoy protests.

In a rare show of parliamentary unity, members of all parties on the Commons public safety and national security committee approved a motion requiring an “immediate response” from the OPP regarding an apparent “contradiction” between what its commissioner told the committee in March about the protests and what its head of intelligence said to the Emergencies Act inquiry last week.