A report circulated by the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) made numerous false and misleading claims about the Freedom Convoy.
As first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, the memo titled Examining U.S. Support and Funding for the Canadian Trucker Contoy was published by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).
The ISD made several false and since disputed claims including that funding for the convoy was from “international sources.”
“Funding appears to be coming from a host of U.S. and international sources,” claimed the ISD.
Testimony and evidence tabled before the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) have revealed that the convoy was in fact grassroots and domestically funded.
The ISD is an international think tank based out of the United Kingdom that focuses on “disinformation and extremism.” It does not have any offices in Canada.
According to the minutes of a meeting between Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director David Vigneault and federal officials tasked with responding to the convoy, the top intelligence chief told the government that CSIS saw no evidence of foreign funding.
“There [are] no foreign actors identified at this point supporting or financing this convoy. FINTRAC is supporting this work/assessment and the banks are also engaged,” said Vigneault.
“There is not a lot of energy and support from the U.S.A. to Canada. CSIS has also not seen any foreign money coming from other states to support this.”
The ISD report sent to former OPS chief smeared the convoy as extreme and radical based on videos posted by users on TikTok.
“The convoy is attracting violent and harmful content and commentary from TikTok users particularly in posts that target Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,” claimed the ISD.
False claims of foreign involvement were also spread by legacy media outlets like the CBC. At the height of the convoy, a host with CBC’s program Power & Politics implied on air that Russia was behind the convoy without any evidence.
Lawyers representing demonstrators have since demanded that the POEC makes CBC CEO
Catherine Tait take the stand and answer for the Crown corporation’s coverage of the convoy.
“The Commission is mandated to investigate misinformation that led to the declaration of emergency. The biggest source of misinformation was the corporate press,” JCCF lawyer Hatim Kheir wrote to the Commission.
