Report Reveals 87 Percent of Federal Records on Freedom Convoy Withheld During Inquiry
The majority of the federal records related to the Freedom Convoy were not disclosed in the 2022 inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act against protesters and are not expected to be made public for several years, as reported by the Privy Council.
The records labeled confidential by the Public Order Emergency Commission include 16,632 classified as “secret” and 372 as “top secret.”
According to the report, only commission lawyers and the presiding judge had full access to the documents.
“The commissioner and counsel had access to all information produced to the commission,” the report stated. “Given that the commission was an independent commission of inquiry, the Privy Council Office cannot comment on how specific documents were used by the commission. These questions would need to be posed to former Commissioner Justice Rouleau.”
The 31,844 documents have been archived and may remain there for an extended period, as mentioned in the report.
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“Will Canadians have access to the documents which were not published or otherwise referred to publicly and if so, how, when, and where?” the report questioned. “Following an archival assessment of the Commission holdings by Library and Archives Canada, the Commission records of historical value will be transferred to the archives for long-term access and preservation.”
Once the documents have been “processed,” members of the public will have the opportunity to make requests to access the material, as stated by the Privy Council.
Publicly released documents reveal that cabinet members made misleading statements about the protests’ violence and that law enforcement had requested the activation of the Emergencies Act.
“There was no serious violence in Ottawa, the main reason for the Emergencies Act,” stated RCMP Deputy Commissioner Brian Brennan in a Feb. 21, 2022 email.
“It is not an ‘extremist’ movement,” commented Ontario Provincial Police Superintendent Patrick Morris in a Feb. 22, 2022 memo. “It is not comprised of ideologically motivated violent extremists. The actual leaders are not violent extremists with histories of violent criminal acts.”
In the ruling, the judge acknowledged the government’s need for prompt resolution of the convoy situation in Ottawa but remarked that other Canadian laws could have addressed the protests, emphasizing that the provincial governments of Quebec and Ontario could have managed the situation without federal interference.
Ottawa invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, 2022, in response to the Freedom Convoy protest, where demonstrators and their vehicles gathered in Ottawa to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.
