According to a report prepared by a police consultant and distributed by the former Ottawa Police Service (OPS) Commissioner, the Freedom Convoy protests were “a movement by right-wing Christians” seeking to attract supporters.
“This is a movement by right-wing Christians who used powers of attorney to gain supporters and privileged access as ‘protesters,'” said Erin Kelly, CEO of contract market research firm Advanced Symbolics Inc. I wrote in an email to the Ottawa Police Department.According to February 6th black rock reporter.
Then-OPS chief Peter Sloly said in a subsequent email that the consultant’s report provided “really important insights” and urged it to be widely distributed among OPS officials. .
Kelly said in an email that the Freedom Convoy protests “are not really about vaccination mandates,” according to evidence gathered by Advanced Symbolics.
“Given that today is Lord’s Day, we’re starting to see some of the real agenda here,” Kelly said, referring to an email picture of “religious imagery circulating on social.” added that it included [media] Among the “protesters”.
“Further evidence that this is not really about vaccine mandates,” he continued.
Kelley also claimed the demonstrators only pretended to be protesting the vaccine mandate in order to attract a larger crowd.
“If they said, ‘Let’s attend a Christian meeting in Ottawa,’ nobody would come.”
“Calm down, festival”
An internal memo from the Ontario Police Department (OPP), circulated the same day the federal government invoked the state of emergency law, describes Freedom Convoy as “gentle, festive, and family-friendly.”
“The speakers again told people to stay away from the agitators and thanked the police for keeping calm. Many of the speakers promoted love and peaceful protest, and some even quoted from the Bible.” and the memo “Operational Intelligence Report” dated February 14.
In a memo, state police added that the protest speaker “wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day.” [Day]and that there were “wellington street kids playing hockey”.
Many donations to Freedom Convoy were made through the online crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo. Mission We will share the “hope of Jesus through crowdfunding”.
“When we stand for freedom, it remains our focus,” he said. Platform website.
Of the total $25 million donated to Freedom Convoy, more than $13 million was sent through GiveSendGo, according to Blacklock’s.
The platform’s co-founder Jacob Wells told a congressional committee in March that while GiveSendGo itself “does not fund,” it does allow individuals to start fundraising campaigns on the platform. said.
“They are funded by their supporters,” Wells said in the House. Public Safety Commission March 3rd.
Liberal MP Talib Nomohamed told Wells whether Gibsendogo was aware that Freedom Convoy protesters were “publicly speaking of their desire to use violence against the government and overthrow it.” Asked.
“It wasn’t something we were aware of,” Wells replied. “Obviously, there are always peripheral elements in any organization.”
“Generally, I think the media is just trying to polarize the frontier because that’s great for the media.”
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