Explosive texts between staffers at PMO and Public Safety indicate the Liberals purposely framed the Ottawa protestors as “extreme” like the January 6 event in America.
Mary-Liz Power, working for the Prime Minister’s Office, texted Alexander Cohen from Public Safety on January 24.
“I just had a chat with Alex from PS who had an interesting idea,” Power’s text shows. Power copied and pasted to Cohen what she said to the PMO on his and her behalf.
“As you saw in the pod goals chat, the truckers convoy and some of their more extreme comments (IE calling for J6 style insurrection) are getting more coverage in the media.”
“I think there could be an opportunity to get in on this growing narrative of the truckers . . .”
“My thoughts on the framing here would be similar to what the PM/Blair said last year when Jan 6th occurred …” Power said.
Power further indicated that her boss in the PMO liked the idea of disparaging the protestors with negative framing.
“Got quick responses. People are into it,’ she wrote.
“Let me know if your boss is too. Happy to help however I can!”
Cohen responded positively to the suggestion, but said his boss wanted the “crazy” protestors to stay.
“My boss is supportive, but wants to wait a day or two. There’s a danger that if we come down too hard, they might push out the crazies.”
Additionally, the texts reveal the PMO and Public Safety leveraged mainstream media to push the negative narrative of the protestors — and knew the stories were coming before they went to print.
“Apparently Global and others are working on stories. Let’s see how those land…”
The protestors showed up in Ottawa four days later on January 28.
