Deputy Finance Minister Michael Sabia wanted to ‘keep the heat off the bank branches’ after accounts belonging to Freedom Convoy sympathizers were frozen, according to internal emails. His complaints went to the RCMP Commissioner and cabinet, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“You should know there have been threatening activities at certain bank branches,” Deputy Sabia wrote in a Feb. 18, 2022 email to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. “This is causing the banks considerable concern for the safety of their employees. Indirectly, if we aren’t careful on this, they will pull back.”.Sabia did not name which banks had employees that received threats, or detail any of the “threatening activities” that occurred. Sabia’s email was written four days after cabinet began compiling a blacklist of convoy sympathizers whose accounts were to be frozen..“The (RCMP) Commissioner said that people with frozen accounts should go to their banks to have them unfrozen,” wrote Sabia. “This is a MISTAKE. They should go to local law enforcement. This keeps the heat off the bank branches and reduces the risk of violence.”.Sabia’s email was forwarded to the Department of Public Safety and onto RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, who proposed immediate action. “I think we need to create a process,” wrote Lucki. “Probably similar to what we do when we impound a vehicle. The owner comes to the detachment to get a slip that permits the impound to release the vehicle.”.Freeland at a February 21 cabinet committee meeting discussed the bankers’ proposal to have depositors whose accounts were frozen first report to police before they could access their money. Freeland in November 24 testimony at the Public Order Emergency Commission said she worried about the impact of the freeze on bankers..“I was concerned about bank tellers,” testified Freeland. “You know they are vulnerable. They are front line people. They don’t get paid that much money. They worked hard during COVID.”.“It was important to me for them not be exposed to any danger in all of this,” said Freeland. “Actually one of the motivations for crafting the measures the way we did was to protect them.”.Funds were targeted under the Proceeds Of Crime And Terrorist Financing Act. An estimated $7.8 million was frozen in 437 bank and credit union accounts and Bitcoin wallets..“My central concern was, you know, that some poor teller not get yelled at and be held responsible and even be in a dangerous situation,” testified Freeland. “That was part of the thinking behind having these measures, to give the banks at all levels including the tellers the ability to say, ‘This is the government’s decision, it’s not my decision.’”.Gordon Cameron, Commission counsel, told a November 17 hearing the Department of Finance appeared uninterested in the impact on depositors. “Who takes responsibility for the fact these accounts were frozen, that people couldn’t pay their rent, that people couldn’t buy their groceries?” said Cameron. “Who takes responsibility for that?”.“You’re starting to affect more than the protesters and you know that,” said Cameron. “In the first scenario you’re saying to the protester, ‘We are going to cut off the money you are using to buy gas for your truck.’ And in the second mode you’re saying, ‘We are going to cut off your family’s money that they use to buy groceries and pay rent so you’d better get out of this protest.’”
