I'm kind of annoyed that my tax dollars went towards quadruple replication of intelligence during a public order emergency and that none of it seemed to be shared between the intelligence groups. I hope they streamline this entire process within the RCMP. No wonder other policing orgs were confused if they were getting replica reports of intelligence from the RCMP.
SR, you say, in part, "I'm kind of annoyed that my tax dollars went towards quadruple replication of intelligence..."
Personally, the summary that Professor Wark provides herein does not reassure me that there was a great deal of intelligence involved. When I say that, I am not slamming the IQ of the individuals or their work ethic or anything like that. Instead, I look at this summary that seems to demonstrate a dependence upon open source information (i.e. information available to anyone who looks) and doesn't - it seems - involve a great deal of analysis. Certainly, as Professor Wark notes, there was not a great deal of forward looking material.
Now, someone might protest that this was a dynamic situation and was constantly changing and that is completely true but isn't that precisely the very situation where "intelligence," analysis and forward looking is needed?
Personally, I have been aware of troubling commentary about the horsemen for a number of years on everything from being under led, under staffed, under trained, under equipped, etc., etc.; in other words, pretty much totally under resourced in all respects. The Mounties have coasted on their red serge image for so many years that the red serge has worn pretty thin by now and really does need replacing.
I wanted to say something like this, but I didn't want to offend anyone. I think there was a lot of OSINT with very little analysis. I even wondered if they watched the conversations online between the far right influencers and "leaders" of the Convoy while it was happening. My gut says nope. Even what the people who were not "leaders" of the Convoy said, because that would indicate movement somewhere and possible plans of harassment of the other police that were there, the store owners, the people of Ottawa, etc. Even comments like some women saying they did not feel safe walking with their female daughters (tweenagers and teenagers) alone with a group of men in the Convoy behind them. This is also important. A lot of this type of thing was missed by the RCMP. The harassment, saying slurs, throwing things, being belligerent to store owners, etc about masks all the time, but that was still talked about and planned before they got there. You know, if you walk into a hotel, demand food, and scream many racial slurs at the women at the front desk, and throw things at them....this should be enough to get your arrested....but it wasn't.
There was a lot of, "We didn't want to arrest too many people, because then it might upset the whole Convoy and things might get uglier." Is that not your literal job to keep the peace? If people are disrupting the peace, they need to be held responsible for it. The fear of violence escalation should not be even a fear.
This Convoy was really constantly changing, because the people on the ground that were "running" it, didn't have a great handle on the other people involved, and some people just did their own thing and didn't really follow the others. The parents who took their kids should have been charged with something like child endangerment. I guess it's ok to take your baby or toddler to a Convoy where the loud honking might damage their ears and sleeping patterns, plus on one of the coldest weeks of the year? I know one of the parents had to go to the ER for her baby being too cold. My understanding was that the truck would not start and she couldn't get a hotel room, so she went to the ER.
We used the Emergency Measures Act, but the people arrested and charged, had a lot of charges dropped. Those people are still out there doing the same thing that they did during the Convoy. Recruiting, saying slurs, harassing people, being belligerent to others, etc.
I hope some of the money that was raised that was frozen goes back to the Ottawa businesses that lost money those weeks, and to the people of Ottawa, anyone and everyone really. Esp to the people that couldn't sleep over the honking, the disabled people that were afraid to leave their homes, etc.
I know Michael Kempa has written a book/or is in the middle of a book about the Convoy, and I hope the things that the Convoy people did to the people and businesses of Ottawa is a really long chapter. A lot of people out there still think it was "peaceful" with "bouncy castles" and "saunas."
This article is a very fair assessment of a troubling situation and I have a couple of observations:
- The deployment of the “Financial Crimes Division” as the conduit between the Government and the its Emergency Act and the banking system has its irony. The Government lost the first round of legal battles over the legitimate use of the Emergency Act and if the trend continues, the RCMP finds itself in an uncomfortable position. Targeting citizens with frozen financial assets under tenuous legal grounds isn’t a good look.
- Also, considering the intelligence gathering and sharing dysfunction of the RCMP, we should all thank our lucky stars that the worst case scenario of violence leading to death and destruction never materialized. Next time we might not be so lucky.
I'm kind of annoyed that my tax dollars went towards quadruple replication of intelligence during a public order emergency and that none of it seemed to be shared between the intelligence groups. I hope they streamline this entire process within the RCMP. No wonder other policing orgs were confused if they were getting replica reports of intelligence from the RCMP.
SR, you say, in part, "I'm kind of annoyed that my tax dollars went towards quadruple replication of intelligence..."
Personally, the summary that Professor Wark provides herein does not reassure me that there was a great deal of intelligence involved. When I say that, I am not slamming the IQ of the individuals or their work ethic or anything like that. Instead, I look at this summary that seems to demonstrate a dependence upon open source information (i.e. information available to anyone who looks) and doesn't - it seems - involve a great deal of analysis. Certainly, as Professor Wark notes, there was not a great deal of forward looking material.
Now, someone might protest that this was a dynamic situation and was constantly changing and that is completely true but isn't that precisely the very situation where "intelligence," analysis and forward looking is needed?
Personally, I have been aware of troubling commentary about the horsemen for a number of years on everything from being under led, under staffed, under trained, under equipped, etc., etc.; in other words, pretty much totally under resourced in all respects. The Mounties have coasted on their red serge image for so many years that the red serge has worn pretty thin by now and really does need replacing.
I wanted to say something like this, but I didn't want to offend anyone. I think there was a lot of OSINT with very little analysis. I even wondered if they watched the conversations online between the far right influencers and "leaders" of the Convoy while it was happening. My gut says nope. Even what the people who were not "leaders" of the Convoy said, because that would indicate movement somewhere and possible plans of harassment of the other police that were there, the store owners, the people of Ottawa, etc. Even comments like some women saying they did not feel safe walking with their female daughters (tweenagers and teenagers) alone with a group of men in the Convoy behind them. This is also important. A lot of this type of thing was missed by the RCMP. The harassment, saying slurs, throwing things, being belligerent to store owners, etc about masks all the time, but that was still talked about and planned before they got there. You know, if you walk into a hotel, demand food, and scream many racial slurs at the women at the front desk, and throw things at them....this should be enough to get your arrested....but it wasn't.
There was a lot of, "We didn't want to arrest too many people, because then it might upset the whole Convoy and things might get uglier." Is that not your literal job to keep the peace? If people are disrupting the peace, they need to be held responsible for it. The fear of violence escalation should not be even a fear.
This Convoy was really constantly changing, because the people on the ground that were "running" it, didn't have a great handle on the other people involved, and some people just did their own thing and didn't really follow the others. The parents who took their kids should have been charged with something like child endangerment. I guess it's ok to take your baby or toddler to a Convoy where the loud honking might damage their ears and sleeping patterns, plus on one of the coldest weeks of the year? I know one of the parents had to go to the ER for her baby being too cold. My understanding was that the truck would not start and she couldn't get a hotel room, so she went to the ER.
We used the Emergency Measures Act, but the people arrested and charged, had a lot of charges dropped. Those people are still out there doing the same thing that they did during the Convoy. Recruiting, saying slurs, harassing people, being belligerent to others, etc.
I hope some of the money that was raised that was frozen goes back to the Ottawa businesses that lost money those weeks, and to the people of Ottawa, anyone and everyone really. Esp to the people that couldn't sleep over the honking, the disabled people that were afraid to leave their homes, etc.
I know Michael Kempa has written a book/or is in the middle of a book about the Convoy, and I hope the things that the Convoy people did to the people and businesses of Ottawa is a really long chapter. A lot of people out there still think it was "peaceful" with "bouncy castles" and "saunas."
This article is a very fair assessment of a troubling situation and I have a couple of observations:
- The deployment of the “Financial Crimes Division” as the conduit between the Government and the its Emergency Act and the banking system has its irony. The Government lost the first round of legal battles over the legitimate use of the Emergency Act and if the trend continues, the RCMP finds itself in an uncomfortable position. Targeting citizens with frozen financial assets under tenuous legal grounds isn’t a good look.
- Also, considering the intelligence gathering and sharing dysfunction of the RCMP, we should all thank our lucky stars that the worst case scenario of violence leading to death and destruction never materialized. Next time we might not be so lucky.