‘SEDITION IN OTTAWA’: Carney refuses to comment on his Freedom Convoy condemnation

Prime Minister Mark Carney would not comment when asked about his past claim the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest against COVID-19 mandates was seditious.

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the RCMP at the time ridiculed Carney for appearing to cut and paste a definition from an American dictionary into a Globe & Mail column claiming peaceful protestors committed “sedition in Ottawa.”

“It's time to end the sedition in Ottawa by enforcing the law and following the money,” wrote Carney on February 7, 2022.

Speaking to reporters at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, ON, on Wednesday, the scene of a short-lived protest three years ago, Carney was asked for his reflections on the Freedom Convoy movement.

“What do you say to Canadians who lost trust in the Liberal government back then and do not have trust in you now?” asked a reporter.

“Well, look, I haven’t been a politician,” replied Carney, who was then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s economic adviser at the time.

“I became a politician a little more than two months ago, two and a half months ago,” said Carney.

“I came in because I thought this country needed big change. We needed big change in the economy.”

In Carney’s 2022 Globe column headlined, It’s Time To End The Sedition In Ottawa,” he likened the protest to a conspiracy to topple the 44th Parliament.

“No one should have any doubt,” wrote Carney.

“This is sedition. That’s a word I never thought I’d use in Canada. It means incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.”

“The constant blaring of horns at all hours, the harassment of people, the culture of fear have been making residents’ lives hell, will bankrupt our businesses and if left unchecked would help achieve the Convoy’s goal of undermining our democracy.”

“Anyone sending money to the Convoy should be in no doubt: you are funding sedition. Foreign funders of an insurrection interfered in our domestic affairs.”

The RCMP in internal emails ridiculed Carney for misreading sedition laws, and that Carney’s definition appeared to be cut and paste from the American Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The Canadian Criminal Code stipulates “use of force” is required for a charge of sedition.

“The key bit is ‘use of force,’” wrote one RCMP officer.

“I’m all about a resolution to this and a forceful one with us victorious but, from the facts on the ground, I don’t know we’re there except in a small number of cases.”

“Agreed,” replied another RCMP officer.

“It would be a stretch to say the trucks barricading the streets and the air horns blaring at whatever decibels for however many days constitute the ‘use of force.’”

No Freedom Convoy protestor was charged with sedition. Of 230 arrested a total 119 were charged, typically with mischief. Parliamentary hearings determined no suspicious foreign donors bankrolled the protest.