CSIS worried convoy protests were being used as 'recruiting ground' for violent 'hardened elements'

Christopher Nardi - Yesterday

OTTAWA – Midway through the Freedom Convoy protests, Canada’s spy agency worried that they were being used as a “recruiting ground” for other causes but saw no sign of foreign threat actors supporting the movement.

A first glimpse into assessments of the convoy by Canada’s secretive intelligence agencies is contained in a summary of a call between municipal, provincial and federal government officials on Feb. 6, nine days after protests began in Ottawa.

The document was tabled at the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) Tuesday.

During the call, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director David Vigneault said that at that point, the Freedom Convoy was “primarily a domestic issue” and that there was little to no evidence of influence by foreign actors.

But he did worry that the convoy had been infiltrated at protests across Canada — namely Parliament Hill, Quebec City, Toronto and Alberta — by “hardened elements” from “other” unnamed causes who “will likely use violence.”

“However, they are not actively participating or organizing it and are likely using this as a recruiting ground,” Vigneault is reported as saying.

The document also reveals CSIS was not seeing any signs of foreign funds flowing towards the convoy nine days into its arrival in Ottawa.

“CSIS has also not seen any foreign money coming from other states to support this,” Vigneault is reported as saying. “There is no foreign actors identified at this point supporting or financing this convoy.”
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His private comments were made at a time of growing concern from experts and other government officials that some of the millions of dollars raised for the Freedom Convoy via crowdfunding websites such as GoFundMe was coming from foreign threat actors hoping to destabilize Canada.

By Feb. 6, GoFundMe had already frozen the fundraiser set up by convoy organizer Tamara Lich (which had topped $10 million) and begun refunding donors.

“We strictly prohibit user content that reflects or promotes behavior in support of violence — in this case, the organizer met our requirements and the fundraiser did not violate our Terms of Service at the time of creation,” the company said at the time.

In the meantime, a new fundraiser had also been launched on U.S.-based “Christian fundraising” website GiveSendGo.

Vigneault said FINTRAC and banks were already tracking the money being fundraised for the convoy and “making sure that it is not used for a non-peaceful purpose.”

He also noted that there was no “major organizing” of truckers coming to Canada from the United States at that time, and that the protest was mainly driven by domestic concerns.

“There is not a lot of energy and support from the USA to Canada,” the document says he noted.

Further intelligence assessments by CSIS of the Freedom Convoy after Feb. 6 have not yet been made public by the commission.

But 10 days after the Feb. 6 call and a few days after controversially invoking the Emergencies Act, Liberal ministers described border blockades in Ontario and Alberta as well as the Ottawa protests as foreign-funded, foreign-organized attacks meant to undermine our nation’s sovereignty.

“We have seen strong evidence that it was the intention of those who blockaded our ports-of-entry in a largely foreign-funded, targeted and coordinated attack, which was clearly and criminally intended to harm Canada, to harm Canadians, to interrupt vital supply lines, to idle our workers and close our factories,” Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told reporters on Feb. 16.

Blair, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a slew of other Liberal ministers are also set to testify at the commission, likely in November.

With additional reporting by Bryan Passifiume.