Only two Freedom Convoy sympathizers were intercepted at the border under the Emergencies Act, according to secret cabinet committee minutes..The Canada Border Services Agency claimed it needed emergency powers to keep out Americans supporting the Freedom Convoy Blacklock's Reporter..“Canada Border Services Agency reported they have had limited use of the Emergencies Act having only turned two individuals away from ports of entry under the new authority to do so,” read confidential minutes of a February 20 meeting. Canada has 117 land crossings..The Act allowed the Agency to prohibit Americans from crossing the border into Canada to attend what became an illegal assembly under the Act. “It is unclear police have these powers under common law,” the Department of Public Safety wrote in a March 24 memo. “The Emergencies Act provided additional authority that had a direct influence on protest participants.”.Neither the public safety department nor Border Services Agency publicly disclosed only two American protesters were intercepted. John Ossowski, now-retired Agency president, avoided mention of details in November 16 testimony at the Public Order Emergency Commission..“Was it your understanding many US or foreign nationals were coming into the country to participate in the protest?” asked lawyer Alexandra Heine, counsel for the Commission. “We turned away people that intended to come and participate in a protest,” replied Ossowski..“There was no ability for us to stop people from coming in and foreign nationals from coming in to participate in that protest if they were otherwise able to enter, if they met all other Quarantine Act requirements,” testified Ossowski. “We identified that as a gap,” he said..Records show American involvement in the Freedom Convoy was marginal. A Department of Finance blacklist of 201 trucking companies involved in the protest found few were American..“Three of the companies with trucks in Ottawa are US-based,” said a finance department memo. Claims of large foreign funding were also false. Of 254,000 donors who gave $24.5 million to protesters a majority, 59% were Canadian..Internal memos and emails show cabinet remained convinced American neo-Nazis were guiding the Freedom Convoy. “It may even have US roots,” Ralph Goodale, former Minister of Public Safety, wrote in a February 6 email to cabinet. “Our intelligence and national security experts must absolutely get to bottom of this horrific set of events and prepare for the next one.”.“It remains essential to delve deeply into the true genesis of this demonstration and who is controlling and directing it,” wrote Goodale, now Canada’s ambassador to the United Kingdom..Goodale in a separate February 13 email to cabinet repeated his claim the protest was a neo-Nazi effort. “The disruptive events in Ottawa seem to have been extensively and meticulously pre-organized,” wrote Goodale..“A critical question is to what extent the protests in Canada reflect legitimate homegrown concern about the impacts of the prolonged lockdowns and how much of this activity is actually organized, animated, directed and financed by alt-right insurrectionists from the United States,” wrote Goodale.
