State-of-the-art surveillance aircraft used by Canadian special forces flew over the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa, despite military directives for such overflight.
The Canadian Army issued a directive on January 27, stating that its vehicles and personnel should avoid protests in downtown Ottawa, and that the Royal Canadian Air Force should not fly over it. report Ottawa Citizen.
Special forces leaders justified evading the directive by saying that the plane was owned by a civil defense contractor.
“The amplification provided by the RCAF through this directive did not apply to these training activities contracted outside the RCAF,” Defense Ministry (DND) spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier told Ottawa Citizen.
The DND said the training flight was planned in advance and was unrelated to the protest.
Stephen Watkins, an Ottawa researcher who tracks ships and planes, previously said that several surveillance planes had set sail during the week when Freedom Convoy was in Ottawa, and a cross-country trucking fleet began on January 28. rice field. Arrive at the capital of the country.
Watkins also said that the US-registered 350ER King Air is a pattern flying over Ottawa, which is consistent with the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions that normally occur in the theater. rice field.
“In a spectacular show of the worst possible situational awareness, [Canadian Special Operations Forces Command] The public was unaware of the custom-made reconnaissance aircraft registered in the United States, obscured its existence, and believed that it had “trained” to monitor Ottawa against their instructions, “Watkins said on Twitter on May 16. Stated.
Canada has purchased three such planes equipped with equipment for intercepting telecommunications and capturing high-resolution images, but has not yet received them.
The reason for the existence of the plane is to collect information, and training in Ottawa means that the sensor is likely to have been used. The remaining questions are: If the material was collected, was it retained? If so, was it processed and analyzed? If it was processed and analyzed, was it used to notify military leaders and governments?
And unless the government enforces defense law to force the military to provide support to law enforcement agencies to gather information about Canadian citizens, all of this will be illegal.
Conservative lawmakers asked the government if the law was enacted and if DND collected information about Canadians, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the House of Commons on May 4 that “fear and conspiracy theory”. I blamed it as an attempt to “cause.”
“What the official opposition is playing here is false or disinformation when choosing to make political hay from something that could be relevant to many people if it is true. It’s dangerously close, but it’s just not, “Trudeau said.
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Noé Charter is a Montreal-based Epoch Times reporter.