A police blacklist of bank account holders named as Freedom Convoy sympathizers was emailed to lobbyists, records disclose. The RCMP distributed names, birth dates, phone numbers and other personal information by unencrypted email, contradicting public claims by cabinet..“Haphazard would be an understatement,” said Conservative MP Adam Chambers (Simcoe North, Ont.), who requested the information tabled in an Inquiry Of Ministry in the House of Commons. Neither police nor cabinet took steps to ensure the blacklist was accurate or confidential, records showed..“That there were no instructions or guard rails provided to entities that received this information should concern people,” said MP Chambers. “Even the Privacy Commissioner has confirmed his office is investigating how information was handled.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, the Inquiry said the RCMP compiled a list of 79 individual and business account holders suspected of Freedom Convoy sympathies. Cabinet earlier said the freeze affected 267 bank and credit union accounts and 170 bitcoin wallets. The discrepancy was unexplained..Some $7.8 million in accounts was frozen under a 9/11-era Proceeds Of Crime And Terrorist Financing Act. Cabinet lifted the freeze last February 23..The Inquiry said the blacklist was emailed to lobby groups like the Mutual Fund Dealers Association. “The information was shared with up to 50 financial institutions,” wrote staff. “As examples the RCMP provided information to banks, the Canadian Bankers Association, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Canadian Securities Administration, credit unions and the Mutual Fund Dealers Association.”.“The information provided included but was not limited to name, date of birth, residential address, registered vehicles and associated businesses and phone numbers,” said the Inquiry..“The RCMP disclosed information by unencrypted email,” wrote staff, adding: “The disclosures were shared with specific points of contact within the corporate security or anti-money laundering teams within the recipient institutions.”.Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland last February 21 denied personal information on Freedom Convoy sympathizers was broadly distributed by the RCMP. “It’s important for all of us to be very, very careful to get our facts exactly right,” Freeland told reporters..“The RCMP has given to the financial institutions names of leaders and organizers of the protests and of people whose trucks were part of occupations and blockades,” said Freeland. “That is the only information, according to the RCMP, that the RCMP has given to financial institutions.”.MP Chambers yesterday said full disclosure is needed. “I suspect the government is embarrassed about how haphazard their approach was and are hoping we will all forget about it,” he said. “They are not interested in transparency and they don’t respect Parliament,” said Chambers..A $19 million judicial inquiry into use of the Emergencies Act is to open October 13. The witness list of cabinet members to be questioned has not been released.
