The FBI provided support to the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) during the truck convoy protest last winter, according to a document tabled before the public inquiry investigating the federal government’s response to the protest.
“Confidential minutes of the Ottawa Police Services Board presented to the Public Order Emergency Commission inquiry show that, during an in-camera discussion on Feb. 11, members of the Ottawa Police Service, including Chief of Police Peter Sloly and Deputy Chief of Police Steve Bell, briefed members of the board on the demonstrations,” CBC reports.
The FBI provided support to the Ottawa Police Service as it struggled to deal with the truck convoy protest that paralyzed the nation's capital last winter. https://t.co/3bFRSZz5uK
— CBC News (@CBCNews) October 27, 2022
“The Service indicated that while there was a foreign element, it primarily stemmed from financial support coming from the United States,” say the partially redacted minutes tabled before the inquiry, which is examining the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to deal with the protest.
“There had been threats traced back to the U.S. as well. Support was being provided by the FBI,” CBC added.
Recall that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau froze the bank accounts of protestors and attempted to prevent anyone from donating to the truck convoy.
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The minutes do not define the kind of support the FBI was providing. They're also silent on whether the FBI support was to deal with the threats or the financing — or both.
The OPSÂ says it will not comment on the FBI's role.
"The Ottawa Police is not commenting on convoy-related matters at this time, so as to respect the public inquiry underway," wrote Const. Charles Proulx in an e-mail response to questions from CBC News.
The FBI's national office also refused to comment.
The minutes also mentioned that the OPS was getting help from Canada's spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
"The OPS were in regular contact with CSIS and their intelligence had been embedded into the Service's overall intelligence posture," say the minutes.
The Ottawa Police Services Board meeting took place one day after CBC News revealed that hundreds of donors to the GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign to support the convoy protest indicated in their comments that they were located outside of Canada — and more than half of those who indicated they were located outside Canada were in the United States.
Two days after that meeting, on Feb. 13, an anonymous person hacked the GiveSendGo crowdfunding site for the convoy protest and made the data on thousands of donors public.
Read the partially redacted minutes from the Ottawa Police Services Special Meeting HERE.
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