Convoy organizer, Pat King, has been denied bail. This as police investigate reports that officers donated to the convoy.
Yesterday, we noted that Pat King will find out whether or not he will be able to make bail. With fellow organizer, Tamara Lich, denied bail, the question was whether or not King would share the same fate. As it turns out, King was, in fact, denied bail. From the CBC:
Leader of the so-called Freedom Convoy Pat King has been denied bail because of a “substantial likelihood” he would reoffend, according to Justice of the Peace Andrew Seymour.
King, an Alberta resident who helped lead the three-week occupation in Ottawa, was arrested last Friday and faces charges of mischief, counselling to commit mischief, counselling to disobey a court order, and counselling to obstruct police. He broadcast his arrest in a livestream, which was viewed by thousands of people on social media.
Seymour referenced King’s comments on other videos posted online about continuing to protest, plus his “history of criminality” as reasons for denying bail.
“I am satisfied there is a substantial likelihood Mr. King would continue committing offences similar to what he is accused of, should he be released,” Seymour said in his decision.
Seymour also cited videos shared by the Crown as evidence and said it is an “overwhelming case.”
“There is significant evidence linking Mr. King to the organization of the occupation, participation in the occupation, and directing others via his social media videos to commit the alleged offences,” Seymour said, noting the Crown’s intention to seek a lengthy imprisonment.
So, it looks like two organizers, at the very least, will be spending more time behind bars after the pair of decisions. It’s unclear when the next hearing will be, but at the very least, the two organizers won’t be (legally) able to keep helping the terrorist occupiers for the time being.
Ontario Officers Named As Convoy Donors, Investigation Sparked
One of the overwhelmingly big problems in the response to the occupation was the fact that police seemed to be treating it all with kid gloves. Laws and bylaws were largely ignored for the longest time as police seemed to turn a blind eye to all the lawbreaking going on. It wasn’t until sometime after the Emergencies Act was invoked that it seemed that serious action was taken. All this sparked accusations that the police were actually on the side of the occupiers all this time.
Recently, more evidence surfaced suggesting that there is even more concrete evidence outside of hours worth of footage on social media where officers were treating the occupiers with what looks like general support. Names of several officers surfaced from leaked information. It suggests that police were not only actively taking a hands off approach to the occupiers for most of the time, but also actively donating to them as well. This would be even more evidence that the police were actively supporting the occupation even though they were supposed to be enforcing the law.
In response, the Ontario Provincial Police said that they would be investigating. From Ottawa Citizen:
Members of the Ottawa Police Service also appeared on the leaked list of donor, but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ontario Provincial Police are investigating reports that some of its officers donated to the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protests against COVID-19 measures.
OPP spokesman Bill Dickson says the force is aware that members “appear to have made donations that have gone toward the unlawful protest in Ottawa.”
He says officers mustn’t do anything that could be interpreted as “condoning illegal activity,” and the police service holds officers accountable for their actions while on and off duty.
Dickson did not say how many officers were being investigated.
There’s an extremely long running joke about police investigations. That joke is, “We’ve investigated ourselves and found no evidence of wrongdoing.” So, while the idea of police officers condoning illegal activity is quite damaging from a public relations front, the events leading up to these revelations made such a story not entirely surprising for some. What’s more is that plenty of analysts have been asked whether levels of government and the police can really recover from this. Often, the responses have been a shake of the head and a response of, “I don’t know” or “I have no idea”.
Already, police in that province has been taking hit after hit over systemic racism leading up to the convoy taking place. For a lot of people, if there was any doubt about there being systemic racism, those doubts were basically nuked from orbit thanks to the response to the convoy.
Rideau Hall: No, You Can’t Dissolve Government By Contacting the Governor General
Part way through the occupation, supporters of the occupation were flooding the Governor General with demands to dissolve the government. While most Canadian’s saw that and rightfully pointed out that, no that’s not how things work, it appears that Rideau Hall decided to explain basic Canadian social studies and point out that you can’t just dissolve government on request. From CTV:
Rideau Hall took a moment to remind Canadians that they can’t simply dissolve Parliament by contacting the Governor General or her office and registering a vote of no confidence.
In a statement posted to Twitter on Tuesday, the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General Mary Simon said: “No such registry or process exists.”
“The Office of the Secretary to the Governor General (OSGG) is aware that misinformation encouraging citizens to contact the Governor General or our office to register votes of no confidence is circulating on social media. This information is not correct,” the statement reads.
Regular Canadians cannot register a vote of no confidence. MPs are elected to represent their constituents in Parliament on all voting matters.
That much was pretty obvious, but at the very least, there is an official statement explaining this basic aspect of how Canadian politics works.
CSIS Blindsided
One aspect not talked about much is how Canadian intelligence responded to this whole terrorist occupation. It seems that the occupation was not even on the radar for them. As we know now, it was more than just people showing up to whine about getting vaccinated. From Ottawa Citizen:
Briefing notes and Power Point slides from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) identify enemies such as ISIS and al-Qaida, and the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Brigade, Blood & Honour and the Base. “There is a continued threat of a violent attack in Canada with little or no warning,” they say.
But these analyses never mention the chance that a crowd of angry truckers and groups from the far right will join together one week and occupy the capital, rather than trying to kill people.
The CSIS documents, released through an access to information request, also identify high-profile targets of possible violence: a professional football game, Barack Obama’s 2019 visit to Ottawa, the RCMP Sunset Ceremony, the Army Run, and even the opening of the LRT back in 2019.
But again, nobody at CSIS was asking: What if a group ignores the high-profile targets and instead blockades city streets, blasting disruptive noise all day, and refusing to leave?
The documents say security threats would likely be from “an extremist lone actor” or small group, with no warning. The past 10 days have turned that upside-down.
Later reports suggests that Canadian intelligence agencies admitted that there were calls for a civil war by the terrorist occupiers. From Laval News:
A report generated by ITAC on the Freedom Convoy, which The Guardian claimed last week to have seen, stated that the Ottawa Police Service – which has a mandate to provide overall security in the nation’s capital – was warned of the imminent arrival of the Freedom Convoy, although it later emerged that the OPS underestimated what they would be dealing with.
Canada’s ‘January 6’
As cited by The Guardian, the ITAC report said supporters of the convoy “advocated civil war,” called for violence against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and said the protest should be “used as Canada’s ‘January 6’”, which was a reference to the storming of the United States Capitol in Washington DC in early January last year.
“Extremists and other individuals supporting Covid-19 conspiracy theories and violent anti-authority/anti-government views have expressed intent to participate in the convoy and to attend the accompanying protest in Ottawa,” The Guardian said, quoting from the ITAC report.
Daniel Bulford was, of course, one of the organizers. As it turned out, he was one of the officers that guarded the Prime Minister:
On Feb. 9, CBC News identified the chief of security for Freedom Convoy 2022 as Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who was on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s personal bodyguard detail until last year. According to the CBC, Bulford quit after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
CBC News also identified two other senior Freedom Convoy organizers as former law enforcement officers or military veterans. Tom Quiggin, a former military intelligence officer also worked with the RCMP and was considered one of the country’s top counter-terrorism experts. And Tom Marazzo, identified as an ex-military officer who served in the Canadian Forces for 25 years, now works as a freelance software developer, said the CBC.
So, some scary stuff to say the least. It does lead one to wonder if there are other high ranking officers who supported the convoy working in the high ranks and whether or not that is a security concern given what we know now about the terrorist occupation.
One thing is for sure, there is a lot of questions that some of this raises. Still, one question was answered today: King is going to be in jail for a little while longer. Eventually, we’ll get to the court hearings which is seemingly the next step in all of this.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
