The Public Order Emergency Commission paid as an expert consultant an Ottawa pollster who described Freedom Convoy supporters as thugs and jihadists. Frank Graves, president of Ekos Research Associates Inc., said he regretted his tweets and deleted them..“It was a personal opinion expressed intemperately,” Graves said in an interview. “The remarks were inappropriate. It expressed my personal displeasure.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, the Commission said it had no knowledge of the comments on social media before it paid Graves for a sociological analysis of the protest. “The Commission engaged a number of external experts,” said Michael Tansey, spokesperson for inquiry. “The Commission was not aware of Mr. Graves’ tweets,” he added..Graves said he was contacted by Commission staffers and paid $5,000 to submit a report entitled Understanding The Freedom Movement: Causes, Consequences And Potential Responses. “It was paid at an hourly rate,” said Graves..“In fairness to the Commission they were not aware of the Twitter comments,” he said. Graves wrote in a series of posts on his Twitter account:.• “I am genuinely frightened about the future of the country” (January 28);• “To see this throng fouling our seat of government and its cherished symbols is just too much” (January 29);• “Never a great idea to be ‘negotiating’ with hallucinogenic insurrectionists” (February 13)..“My business on Kent (Street) was shuttered for three weeks thanks to the so-called Freedom Convoy,” Graves wrote September 25. “These thugs shut down a city based on some hallucinogenic, toxic, anti-democratic jihad. And that was the least of their enduring corrosive legacy.”.Graves said the remarks represented his personal views as an Ottawa businessman, not his professional opinion as a sociologist who analyzed the Freedom Convoy for the inquiry. “They were my personal views,” said Graves. “I do regret posting them.”.“As a sociologist in my professional work in any public forum I express myself in a fair and measured manner based on data and evidence,” said Graves. His report to the commission concluded the Freedom Convoy represented “between a quarter and a third of Canadians,” typically college-educated family men under 50..“Depictions of those drawn to the populism outlook as ‘deplorables’ or a ‘radical fringe’ are not helpful,” said Understanding The Freedom Movement. “Instead, they give more emotional intensity to these groups.”.“There are legitimate reasons for their grievances even if they are disinformed and their solutions do not make sense,” the paper continued. “There is evidence that providing safe listening spaces produces some softening of polarization.”.Justice Paul Rouleau opened the Freedom Convoy inquiry October 13 on a promise of non-partisanship. “My 20 years of experience as a judge have informed my approach to the inquiry,” said Rouleau. “I intend to take a judicial attitude to my job. By that I mean independence, impartiality and fairness.”
