Vincent J. Curtis
21 Nov 22
Monday’s hearings featured Director of CSIS Vignault and Federal Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair. The major revelations of the day were the Liberal dirty tricks directed against the Freedom Convoy, and how the definition of a Public Order Emergency came to be corrupted.
In his testimony, Bill Blair revealed that the Emergencies Act (EA) was one of the tools considered real early in the timeline, perhaps even before the Convoy arrived in Ottawa on January 28, and certainly no later than February 4th, the Sunday of the second weekend.
Both Vignault and Blair argued that “context” mattered in the interpretation of the Public Order Emergency S16 provision of the EA, which states explicitly that it has the same meaning as S2 of the CSIS Act. On either February 9 or 10, 2022, the CSIS Director received the legal advice from the Department of Justice of Canada that S16 of the EA didn’t really mean what it said in plain English, and that other things could constitute threats to the security of Canada. As the Convoy protest was about to enter its third weekend, the EA was being readied for invocation. Plainly the criterion of the EA wasn’t met, and CSIS could not in good conscience conjure it, and so likely the DM Department of Justice came up with this escape hatch, freeing everyone’s conscience. This freeing of conscience also opened the door to private definitions of violence to substitute for common understanding of violence. Because these definitions were private, they went unchallenged and were unchallengeable, in addition to keeping consciences clean.
The campaign to discredit the Convoy began on January 28, before the Convoy arrived in Ottawa. Alexander Cohen first revealed it in an email to Mary-Liz Power. Cohen is the press secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, while Power is the issues advisor to the Prime Minister. The message was to be that the Convoy was infiltrated by Ideologically Motivated Political Extremists. The “Liberal Research Bureau” was also prominent in finding means to discredit the protests.
One of the incidents mentioned by Prime Minster Trudeau as reason for his contempt and condemnation of the Convoy was the presence of certain flags carried in the vicinity of the Convoy. One of those was an upside down Canadian flag with a swastika on it. Interestingly, this was revealed in an opinion piece in Liberal organ the Toronto Star. Convoy lawyer Branden Miller identified the carrier of that flag as Brian Fox, of Enterprise Canada. Fox is a former journalist with the Windsor Star and boasts expertise on crisis communication and branding. As I stated previously and at the time, the flag carriers were obvious plants, agents-provocateurs, though at the time I suspected ACORN as the agency planting the discrediting flag bearer. (Another tell is the use of the swastika. If the flag bearer had been anti-Liberal, the taunt would have been a hammer and sickle, symbolizing communism, not a swastika indicating the Liberal government were fascist. Convoy lawyer Branden Miller revealed that Enterprise Canada works for the Liberal Party of Canada.)
It shocked the lawyers to hear that CSIS Director Vignault actually recommended to the Prime Minister that the EA be invoked after the Cabinet meeting of February 13th was concluded. When asked why and how, given his knowledge of the tie in between CSIS criterion and the EA, it was revealed he had been given the “context” excuse and the advice from the DoJ. He won’t get fired on Tuesday.
Bill Blair’s testimony was an exercise in gaslighting, obfuscation, diversion, evasion, and time-wasting clarifications. But it was telling what he was gaslighting, obfuscating, etc. over. Fear allegedly arising in others, apparently, is a form of violence on your part, according to Blair. On January 27, before the Convoy arrived in Ottawa, Liberal messaging was already firm on labelling the protestors as extremists, that they were threating acts of violence, and inciting hatred, and expressing unacceptable views that did not reflect the opinion of the majority of Canadians. The government condemned in the strongest terms the hatful and violent rhetoric of the Convoy. This messaging appeared in an email from Caroline Williams to Mary-Liz Power, with a cc to Zita Astrava, Blair’s chief of staff. Caroline Williams was an officer of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada. Labeling the protesters in this manner was going to be the government’s response.
Sarah Jackson is the office manager of the chief of staff of the Prime Minister. In a note on February 4th to Katie Telford, chief of staff to the Prime Minister, she describes Blair’s strategy as invoking the EA was revealed. In an interview on Global News given at 8:00 pm on February 13th, as revealed by lawyer Miller, Blair said that the EA had been considered from “the first day.” On Feb 7th, Blair in an email said the Convoy was an “unlawful occupation.” On February 11, Blair was sent a email from DM Public Safety Rob Stewart with an attachment for review from the OPP. It was a proposal to engage politically with the protesters. Blair was opposed to ministers of government engaging with the protesters. Lawyer Miller put it to Blair that it was common for police to request political engagement, but Blair and Trudeau backed themselves into a corner because they would have to engage with Nazis and extremists. Miller also presented the proposal dated February 12th entitled “Proposal: Trucker Protest Engagement. Protected Advice to Ministers.” When asked, “What’s the problem with this,” Blair resorted to gaslighting, “I did not express a problem with this.” And then diverted to something else.
Miller moved in for the kill by bringing up the fact that the government had repeatedly said that police had said the threshold for the EA had been reached, and requested its invocation. Blair replied, “I don’t agree with you.” Blair repeatedly said he disagreed with the question. Then Miller asked Blair to agree that police forces had never asked for the EA. Blair, after a stunned pause, replied that that question was never put to the police services and that it would be inappropriate to ask them.
The Liberal plan from the beginning was
revealed on Monday. It was to discredit
the Convoy with false accusations, plants, leaks to favorable media of false
reports and suspicions, and then hope that the Convoy exhausted itself. Blair began preparing to invoke the EA before
the Convoy even arrived in Ottawa. The plan was never to engage with the
protesters. even though it was advised to do so by law enforcement. If the Convoy couldn’t be destroyed by info
ops, the Liberal government plan was that it would be destroyed by force.
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