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October 19, 2022
On Day 5 of the Emergencies Act hearings, explosive cross examination of Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) intelligence officer Pat Morris confirmed that there was no intelligence that indicated the Freedom Convoy met the legal threshold required for the federal government to invoke the Emergencies Act.
When cross examined by Convoy lawyer Brendan Miller, officer Morris said that he had no evidence of espionage or support of espionage, no evidence of sabotage or support of sabotage and that there was no evidence of foreign influence activities that involved the threat to any person.
Miller continued to press Morris, whose job it was for the force to lead the intelligence-gathering effort of the OPP, on the lack of evidence that must be met in order for the government to be justified in declaring a national emergency and invoking the Act.
“I saw online rhetoric, I saw information on social media, I saw assertions of that type of activity. I’m aware of no intelligence that was produced that would support concern in that regard,” Morris responded.
Miller then asked: “You didn’t see any evidence in the intelligence of activities within or relating to Canada directed toward or in support of a threat or use of acts of serious violence against property for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or ideological objective within Canada or in a foreign state?”
Morris answered: “In relation to the things you’re discussing, we collected all the information which some information asserted attempts at that. We did see that and had to consider that. Did we have any credible evidence that that would occur? No.”
Miller then asked Morris if it was possible that federal intelligence agencies would withhold intelligence from the OPP.
“I believe that I would’ve been informed,” Morris said. “I received no information in relation to the probability of that activity.”
You can watch the entirety of Convoy lawyer Brendan Miller’s cross examination of Pat Morris below.
An email written by Morris was examined under questioning from Cara Zwibel, counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, in which it states that the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) – which is lead by the RCMP – reported that the protests in Ottawa and at the Ambassador Bridge did not meet their threshold for a threat to national security.
In that same email, Morris appears frustrated at political leaders, questioning them on the source of their information regarding “extremist involvement” in the convoy.
Morris also made numerous claims throughout his testimony which contradict many media reports surrounding the criminal behaviour of protesters in Ottawa and around reporting that protesters were armed.
Morris dismissed concerns that protesters were armed in Ottawa as “hyperbole”, saying “we produced no intelligence to indicate that these individuals (protesters) would be armed. There has been a lot of hyperbole about that,” Morris said under questioning from Commission counsel.
Commission counsel spent considerable time probing OPP intelligence collected on the convoy prior to January 28th – the day that protesters arrived in Ottawa.
Read more : https://tnc.news/2022/10/19/day-5-recap-hearings/.
TRUE NORTH
Harrison Faulkner is producer and journalist for True North based in Toronto.
