Convoy ‘intel reports’ accuse police, politicians of creating ‘space’ for violence
In the version of events being shared among the Ottawa protest organizers, the convoy is the real victim.
In the version of events being shared among the Ottawa protest organizers, the convoy is the real victim.
It is police and progressive politicians – not the protesters who have made downtown Ottawa a parking lot for 13 days – who are “creating a political space where violence can occur.”
The reams of reporting detailing harassment, racism and white supremacist involvement are dismissed as a “smear campaign” by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Ottawa’s mayor and the police chief. It was anti-fascists, not individuals associated with the protest convoy, responsible for harassing a downtown homeless shelter.
This version of events is not supported by facts, or by the hundreds of videos and first-person accounts documenting the protest. But it is detailed at length in “intelligence briefs” prepared for convoy supporters and obtained by Global News.
The documents were included in an unsecured Google Drive that made the rounds with reporters and Canadian national security observers Thursday. The purported author of the daily “intel reports” – Tom Quiggin, an independent researcher who formerly worked with the Canadian government – did not respond to multiple emails from Global News.
“This is pure propaganda,” said Stephanie Carvin, a Carleton University professor and former analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
“It’s a way for the movement to reinforce its own narrative … (that) anything that happens that’s violent isn’t the convoy or the protesters, it’s (anti-fascists).”
Convoy protesters could be ‘arrested’ for blocking streets, Ottawa police warn
Quiggin, who styles himself as an “intelligence analyst and court expert” but is widely dismissed by Canadian national security experts, recently described his role as providing “protective intelligence” for the convoy crew.
The daily “intel reports” start with Ottawa’s weather forecasts and inspirational quotes before delving into interpretations of incidents involving the convoy and the reaction by the city’s police and political leaders.
The Google Drive was created with someone using Quiggin's name on Feb. 3, almost a week after the persistent honking protest rolled into Canada's capital. The daily reports date from Jan. 28, and the drive includes several "special reports" on particular incidents and characters in the saga – including Ottawa Policy Chief Peter Sloly and the alleged harassment of workers at the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter.
“Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life,” the Feb. 5 missive quotes Bob Marley saying, before accusing Sloly of making a series of “false accusations” against the convoy participants in order to pressure crowdfunding platform GoFundMe to refund millions in donations to their cause.
Trucker protests: Demonstrators gather at Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport
But interspersed with the conspiratorial suggestions and attacks on political leaders are suggestions that Ottawa police are preparing to take significant action to dismantle the convoy encampments – sentiment Carvin said is echoed by the troupe of livestreamers that have attached themselves to the protest.
“Sociology 101 is it doesn’t matter if something is true or false, it matters if it has impact. If people believe it, it has impact,” said Amarnath Amarasingam, a Queen’s University professor who studies radicalization and conspiracy movements.
“There’s a sense within this group that they are an embattled minority, that society has pulled the wool over their eyes, that they’re involved in this kind of cosmic battle now between good and evil.”
Amarasingam said people like Quiggin – who, despite criticism, does have experience with the Canadian intelligence community – are useful in reinforcing that narrative.
“He claims to be from the inside. This whole notion of the former intelligence officer who has seen the truth from the inside, who is now spreading truth, bringing reality to the masses,” Amarasingam said, drawing parallels to the QAnon conspiracy movement.
Conservatives’ Candice Bergen urges trucker convoy: ‘Take down the barricades’
While the “intelligence” briefs could be dismissed as musings about public statements and media reporting, the protesters’ ability to maintain their beachhead in downtown Ottawa while operating multiple satellite camps and launch minor demonstrations in other areas of the city suggests strong organization.
And while many of the document’s assertions don’t hold up to scrutiny, one suggestion – that police will eventually have to forcibly remove the protesters – is looking increasingly possible.
“These occupiers are obviously very organized in using different tactics to put more pressure on the police service to ensure that the community remains safe and to keep a lid on this,” said Charles Bordeleau, a security consultant and former chief of the Ottawa Police Service.
“There seems to be a core group of individuals that are bent on remaining here in Ottawa. I get the sense that enforcement putting pressure tactics on them to leave? They won’t leave. So at some point, the police service will have to go in and use a reasonable amount of force to forcibly remove these individuals.”
How a former Trump official wound up at Ottawa's convoy protest
Alexander Panetta -
U.S. politicians now involved
Alexander's involvement with the pandemic-protest movement on both sides of the border illustrates the increasingly international nature of the convoy event.
Questions about it are becoming a daily occurrence at White House briefings, as protesters restrict traffic at the busiest Canada-U.S. border crossing.
The White House homeland-security adviser convened a meeting on it Wednesday. A spokesman for President Joe Biden said officials are in close contact with officials in Michigan, Canada and with industries that rely on the mostly blocked Windsor-Detroit Ambassador Bridge.
"We're very focused on this," said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
"The president is focused on this."
© Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Alexander Panetta -
cbc.ca
A former Trump administration official has been in Ottawa for days to participate in the protests against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 measures in what he describes as a personal mission.
Paul Alexander is a Canadian former part-time faculty member at McMaster University in Hamilton who lives in the U.S. and had a contentious stint as science adviser to former president Donald Trump earlier in the pandemic.
Now, he's part of the demonstrations in Ottawa, holding news conferences, appearing alongside People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier and tweeting about bringing fuel to protesting truckers.
He said he's also been contacted, as the protest spreads abroad, by people hoping to organize a similar convoy across the United States.
Alexander told CBC News he'll participate in any event he can, anywhere, on either side of the border, as part of his mission to oppose existing pandemic policies.
"The truckers have common sense," Alexander said in a phone interview.
"It's going to be massive," he said of a possible U.S. truck protest, "and politicians had better pay attention."
He wants policy-makers in jail
While protest organizers say this isn't an anti-vaccine demonstration, Alexander makes clear he's deeply critical of the COVID-19 vaccines, especially for use on young, healthy people. He says he longs to see public officials who promoted COVID-19 vaccines and other pandemic policies imprisoned someday.
"I don't care who you are. You should sit in a jail," said Alexander. "One day, I wish, and I hope, that we re-examine this."
His opinion sits far outside the prevailing view of the health policy-making community that COVID-19 vaccines have saved lives by inoculating people against a virus that has killed 5.8 million people worldwide. It even contrasts with that of his former boss: Trump has urged supporters to get vaccinated and says he's received three doses himself.
© Blair Gable/Reuters
A former Trump administration official has been in Ottawa for days to participate in the protests against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 measures in what he describes as a personal mission.
Paul Alexander is a Canadian former part-time faculty member at McMaster University in Hamilton who lives in the U.S. and had a contentious stint as science adviser to former president Donald Trump earlier in the pandemic.
Now, he's part of the demonstrations in Ottawa, holding news conferences, appearing alongside People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier and tweeting about bringing fuel to protesting truckers.
He said he's also been contacted, as the protest spreads abroad, by people hoping to organize a similar convoy across the United States.
Alexander told CBC News he'll participate in any event he can, anywhere, on either side of the border, as part of his mission to oppose existing pandemic policies.
"The truckers have common sense," Alexander said in a phone interview.
"It's going to be massive," he said of a possible U.S. truck protest, "and politicians had better pay attention."
He wants policy-makers in jail
While protest organizers say this isn't an anti-vaccine demonstration, Alexander makes clear he's deeply critical of the COVID-19 vaccines, especially for use on young, healthy people. He says he longs to see public officials who promoted COVID-19 vaccines and other pandemic policies imprisoned someday.
"I don't care who you are. You should sit in a jail," said Alexander. "One day, I wish, and I hope, that we re-examine this."
His opinion sits far outside the prevailing view of the health policy-making community that COVID-19 vaccines have saved lives by inoculating people against a virus that has killed 5.8 million people worldwide. It even contrasts with that of his former boss: Trump has urged supporters to get vaccinated and says he's received three doses himself.
© Blair Gable/Reuters
Gas cans line the street in front of Parliament Hill as truckers and supporters continue to protest in Ottawa on Wednesday. Alexander tweeted a photo of himself and other volunteers bringing fuel to the protesting truckers.
One jurisdiction after another has credited COVID-19 vaccines with reducing hospitalizations and mortality. The latest numbers from New York state suggest unvaccinated people test positive at a rate almost nine times higher and are 15 times likelier to be hospitalized from COVID-19.
In Canada, since last October, more than 8,000 people have died and unvaccinated people suffered deaths and hospitalizations at a rate several times higher than those who were vaccinated.
Alexander made clear that he supports other vaccines: "I am not an anti-vaxxer. I am for vaccines. My kids are vaccinated. … It's [just] these vaccines," he said.
He's been professionally shunned
Alexander was among the political appointees in the Trump administration who clashed with colleagues over their starkly opposing views of the pandemic.
He says his life was upended as a result. He left the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2020 after only a few months in the role. McMaster University, where he earned a PhD in health-research methods in 2015, has severed ties with him.
"It has been devastating," Alexander told CBC News.
He ascribes his shunning to his claims that vaccines don't work as well as advertised, that their long-term effects are unknown, that some people have been hurt by them, and that lockdowns were a catastrophe.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an extremely small percentage of vaccinations have coincided with fatalities.
He wanted to test herd immunity
Alexander and his Trump administration allies bickered with other officials over his push for a completely different strategy, involving so-called herd immunity. Alexander's preferred plan was to keep things open, let low-risk people get infected, try isolating high-risk people, and in cases of serious illness, prescribe cocktails of existing anti-viral drugs.
In an interview, he called himself a non-partisan and said he hopes to see Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government succeed, though he used the prime minister's recent COVID-19 diagnosis to question the efficacy of vaccines.
"[Trudeau] is triple vaccinated and masked to his eyeballs," he said.
He said he won't stay much longer in Ottawa as he needs to get back to his home in Washington, D.C.
One jurisdiction after another has credited COVID-19 vaccines with reducing hospitalizations and mortality. The latest numbers from New York state suggest unvaccinated people test positive at a rate almost nine times higher and are 15 times likelier to be hospitalized from COVID-19.
In Canada, since last October, more than 8,000 people have died and unvaccinated people suffered deaths and hospitalizations at a rate several times higher than those who were vaccinated.
Alexander made clear that he supports other vaccines: "I am not an anti-vaxxer. I am for vaccines. My kids are vaccinated. … It's [just] these vaccines," he said.
He's been professionally shunned
Alexander was among the political appointees in the Trump administration who clashed with colleagues over their starkly opposing views of the pandemic.
He says his life was upended as a result. He left the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2020 after only a few months in the role. McMaster University, where he earned a PhD in health-research methods in 2015, has severed ties with him.
"It has been devastating," Alexander told CBC News.
He ascribes his shunning to his claims that vaccines don't work as well as advertised, that their long-term effects are unknown, that some people have been hurt by them, and that lockdowns were a catastrophe.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an extremely small percentage of vaccinations have coincided with fatalities.
He wanted to test herd immunity
Alexander and his Trump administration allies bickered with other officials over his push for a completely different strategy, involving so-called herd immunity. Alexander's preferred plan was to keep things open, let low-risk people get infected, try isolating high-risk people, and in cases of serious illness, prescribe cocktails of existing anti-viral drugs.
In an interview, he called himself a non-partisan and said he hopes to see Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government succeed, though he used the prime minister's recent COVID-19 diagnosis to question the efficacy of vaccines.
"[Trudeau] is triple vaccinated and masked to his eyeballs," he said.
He said he won't stay much longer in Ottawa as he needs to get back to his home in Washington, D.C.
U.S. politicians now involved
Alexander's involvement with the pandemic-protest movement on both sides of the border illustrates the increasingly international nature of the convoy event.
Questions about it are becoming a daily occurrence at White House briefings, as protesters restrict traffic at the busiest Canada-U.S. border crossing.
The White House homeland-security adviser convened a meeting on it Wednesday. A spokesman for President Joe Biden said officials are in close contact with officials in Michigan, Canada and with industries that rely on the mostly blocked Windsor-Detroit Ambassador Bridge.
"We're very focused on this," said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
"The president is focused on this."
© Brendan McDermid/Reuters
The White House is now 'very focused' on the Ottawa protest as it spreads into the U.S., said White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday.
Some parliamentarians want to call the U.S. ambassador to Canada to a committee to discuss American involvement in the protest convoy, which has received financial donations and promotional support from abroad.
And NDP MP Heather McPherson plans to introduce a motion that, if passed, would request that Ambassador David Cohen spend up to an hour with the committee.
Her motion also expressed concern about the fact that Americans in positions of authority have shown support for a protest whose organizers had previously said they wanted to force the resignation of the government of Canada if it didn't abolish vaccine mandates.
The political support in the U.S. includes several Republican-led state governments. Some are threatening investigations into a company that cancelled a protest fundraising campaign.
Texas, for example, has launched an investigation into GoFundMe for shutting down a fundraising campaign for the Ottawa protest. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent the company a legal letter asking for 29 types of documents, including the company's communications with Canadian police and the U.S. and Canadian governments.
He also asked for documents to identify Texas donors who donated to the convoy, which would begin to address the unanswered question of how much funding for the protest came from abroad.
Some parliamentarians want to call the U.S. ambassador to Canada to a committee to discuss American involvement in the protest convoy, which has received financial donations and promotional support from abroad.
And NDP MP Heather McPherson plans to introduce a motion that, if passed, would request that Ambassador David Cohen spend up to an hour with the committee.
Her motion also expressed concern about the fact that Americans in positions of authority have shown support for a protest whose organizers had previously said they wanted to force the resignation of the government of Canada if it didn't abolish vaccine mandates.
The political support in the U.S. includes several Republican-led state governments. Some are threatening investigations into a company that cancelled a protest fundraising campaign.
Texas, for example, has launched an investigation into GoFundMe for shutting down a fundraising campaign for the Ottawa protest. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent the company a legal letter asking for 29 types of documents, including the company's communications with Canadian police and the U.S. and Canadian governments.
He also asked for documents to identify Texas donors who donated to the convoy, which would begin to address the unanswered question of how much funding for the protest came from abroad.
The Freedom Convoy has occupied Ottawa for almost two weeks now, but it's not just protesters in the capital — some have brought children along for the ride.
© Provided by Narcity
Brooke Houghton -NARCITY
Ottawa Police Services Deputy Chief Steve Bell revealed in a press conference on February 8 that about 25% of the 418 trucks encamped in Ottawa have "children living in them."
Bell says the discovery was made through "intelligence," and that the children within the occupation "could be at risk during a police operation."
Police are working with the Children's Aid Society to ensure the children's "welfare and safety."
Bell says their message to demonstrators remains the same: "Don't come. And if you do, there will be consequences, including financial consequences for your illegal and unlawful behaviour."
Since the beginning of the protest, Bell says Ottawa police have issued over 1,300 tickets, made 22 arrests and are looking into 79 ongoing criminal investigations.
Bell says that "many of the remaining demonstrators are highly determined and volatile," and they have recently seen an increase in aggression toward police, including a group of protesters who "swarmed" multiple officers.
He also stressed that the threats are not only coming from within Ottawa. With the help of Ohio police, an individual who was placing "fake threats" to "deceive and distract" emergency services was arrested on Monday, while other protesters attacked and "swarmed" officers.
"We've seized fuel and cut off material, financial and logistical support to occupation."
Bell says they have managed to tow and seize some vehicles, but they are experiencing resource and operational issues when it comes to acting further.
"We know that some demonstrators have indicated a desire to leave. In some cases, they're blocked in by other vehicles, and where possible, we're working to facilitate their departure," he says.
To combat their lack of resources, Bell says they need "1,800 officers and civilian personnel" to bring a "safe end to this occupation."
Ottawa Police Services Deputy Chief Steve Bell revealed in a press conference on February 8 that about 25% of the 418 trucks encamped in Ottawa have "children living in them."
Bell says the discovery was made through "intelligence," and that the children within the occupation "could be at risk during a police operation."
Police are working with the Children's Aid Society to ensure the children's "welfare and safety."
Bell says their message to demonstrators remains the same: "Don't come. And if you do, there will be consequences, including financial consequences for your illegal and unlawful behaviour."
Since the beginning of the protest, Bell says Ottawa police have issued over 1,300 tickets, made 22 arrests and are looking into 79 ongoing criminal investigations.
Bell says that "many of the remaining demonstrators are highly determined and volatile," and they have recently seen an increase in aggression toward police, including a group of protesters who "swarmed" multiple officers.
He also stressed that the threats are not only coming from within Ottawa. With the help of Ohio police, an individual who was placing "fake threats" to "deceive and distract" emergency services was arrested on Monday, while other protesters attacked and "swarmed" officers.
"We've seized fuel and cut off material, financial and logistical support to occupation."
Bell says they have managed to tow and seize some vehicles, but they are experiencing resource and operational issues when it comes to acting further.
"We know that some demonstrators have indicated a desire to leave. In some cases, they're blocked in by other vehicles, and where possible, we're working to facilitate their departure," he says.
To combat their lack of resources, Bell says they need "1,800 officers and civilian personnel" to bring a "safe end to this occupation."
