Project Hendon Revealed:

An Important Addendum on national security threats

Dear Readers,

One important addendum to my just-published Project Hendon column.

During Superintendent Morris’ testimony to the Public Order Emergency Commission on October 19 he mentioned a Hendon intelligence report dated February 7—one week before the invocation of the Emergencies Act.

The February 7 Hendon report was the first from OPP intelligence that identified a potential national security threat posed by the Freedom Convoy.

Pat Morris indicated to the Commission that the report was based on a great deal of discussion about the long-term capabilities of the Freedom Convoy protest, about the prospect of additional actions being taken elsewhere in the country by associated protesters, and with regard to the impacts of border blockades.

Superintendent Morris indicated that discussions were held with partners in the RCMP-led Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSETS) and with CSIS about this assessment, neither of whom agreed that the Freedom Convoy activities rose to the level of a national security threat. Ultimately, CSIS and the RCMP INSET sent an email to Morris on February 8 to confirm that they did not see activity from the Freedom Convoy as posing a threat to national security as defined in law.

This matters. Why? Because invocation of the Emergencies Act one week later, on February 14, requires that the Government is able to demonstrate a threat to national security as defined by the CSIS Act, Section 2. The element of the CSIS Act threshold that the Government ultimately relied on was CSIS ASct s2, part “c”, which reads:

“activities within or relating to Canada directed toward or in support of the threat or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property for the purpose of achieving a political, religious to ideological objective within Canada or a foreign state.”

In the proclamation of the Emergency Act on February 14, the invocation of the Act was based on five conditions:

continuing blockades

threats to economic security resulting from the impacts of border blockades

adverse effects on Canada’s relationship with trading partners

breakdowns in supply chains and the risk these breakdowns would continue

and, finally,

the potential for “an increase in the level of unrest and violence that would further threaten the safety and security of Canada.”

The last condition is the one that most closely links to the requirement to meet the CSIS Act definition of threats.

Quite apart from the ultimate question of whether the thresholds for invoking the Emergencies Act were met, the issue that arises directly from Superintendent Morris’ testimony is:

What changed in terms of the outlook of federal security and law enforcement agencies regarding national security threats between February 7/8 and 14?