An internal memo from the Ontario Provincial Police described the Freedom Convoy as “calm, festive and family oriented” the same day the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act, granting themselves special power to forcefully remove demonstrators.
“The mood today was again calm, festive and family oriented,” the Feb. 14 Operational Intelligence Report memo reads.
The same day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to forcefully remove peaceful demonstrators who had been protesting in the capital for three weeks. The extreme measure gave the federal government powers to order banks to freeze bank accounts and crypto wallets of any suspected convoy organizers.
The memo was included among OPP intelligence briefings filed with the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC), as reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
“Speakers were again telling people to walk away from agitators and thanked the police for remaining calm,” the memo continued. “Many of the speakers were promoting love and peaceful protest, some even taking quotes from the Bible.”
The memo also speakers were wishing everyone a happy Valentine’s Day while children played hockey on Wellington Street.
Trudeau and his cabinet have said that they invoked the Emergencies Act on the advice of law enforcement.
“We invoked the act because it was the advice of non-partisan professional law enforcement that existing authorities were ineffective at the time to restore public safety,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told a parliamentary committee on April 26.
“When efforts using existing authorities proved ineffective, the advice we received was to invoke the Emergencies Act.”
Trudeau also told the House of Commons on April 27 that “it was only after we got advice from law enforcement that we invoked the Emergencies Act.”
Yet law enforcement testifying at the POEC said they did not ask for the Emergencies Act to be invoked.
