OTTAWA — The “Freedom Convoy” benefited from police flight and police sympathy, according to the attorney for certain organizers of the movement that occupied the federal capital last winter.
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“Several of the ex-agents were online bringing information … The Freedom Convoy received information leaks from police,” read the summary of the Keith Wilson-led interview filed Wednesday before the Emergency Inquiry Commission, according to Media.
Mr Wilson offered more details about the harrowing allegations after testifying to a group of reporters.
According to him, the police leaks were “constant and extensive”, operational in nature and able to detail police behavior “who would do what, how and where”.
Mr Wilson claimed, without providing evidence, that the leaks came from the RCMP, the Ottawa Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Canadian Intelligence Service.
For example, these leaks could detail the location and time of a planned police raid.
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cooperation
During his testimony, the lawyer insisted on his efforts to cooperate with the police, stressing that the agents at the scene were sympathetic to the protesters.
According to him, the police realized the problem of the leaks and started launching false operations to find the source. Still, according to Me Wilson, the convoy benefited from intelligence agencies “during” the crisis.
Mr Wilson explained that the convoy benefited from the resources and knowledge of former police officers, former soldiers and former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agents.
During the crisis, former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said these individuals posed a huge risk because these individuals had unparalleled organizational, logistical and fundraising skills.
For example, it is a former sniper within the RCMP who was assigned to the Prime Minister’s security until autumn 2020, Daniel Bulford, who provided security for the convoy.
Overthrow the government.
The convoy’s intelligence expert, Tom Marazzo, was a former Canadian Forces captain who worked in the National Defense and RCMP intelligence units.
Mr. Marazzo is a member of the Police on Guard for Thee group. During the crisis, he invited the opposition parties and the governor-general to sit down with the organizers of the convoy to form a coalition.
This was envisaged in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) some of the protesters wanted the governor-general to sign to overthrow the government, an “absurd” document, according to Me Wilson, who said today he never supported it.
Before today’s commission, Mr Marazzo pleaded that he was ill and dehydrated and that he had expressed himself incorrectly on the day he asked for the statement to form a coalition. He claimed never to have endorsed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
The ex-soldier also defended the founder of far-right group Diagolon, Jeremy MacKenzie, whom he portrays as a comedian.
The man was arrested in September on a Canada-wide warrant for assault, aiming a firearm, reckless use of a prohibited weapon and mischief. The day before he had threatened to rape the wife of opposition leader Pierre Poilièvre.
Jeremy MacKenzie, also ex-military, advocates race war on his Telegram channel with the aim of founding a white America from Alaska to Florida. An arsenal of weapons was found at his home in January, then the Diagolon logo appeared on military equipment discovered in Couts, Alberta, on the fringes of the border blockade that paralyzed that sector in February.