What might be coming

The POEC

Dear Readers:

To start this column, I plan to offer commentary on testimony provided to the Public Order Emergencies Commission (POEC). The POEC is constituted automatically, in accordance with the Emergencies Act legislation of 1988, in the aftermath of any federal government invocation of the Act. The Canadian government invoked the Act for the first time on February 14, 2022, in response to the crisis created by the ongoing occupation of downtown Ottawa and the various border blockades that had been instituted by the so-called “Freedom Convoy.” The Public Order Emergencies Commission, a judicial inquiry, began hearing testimony from parties on Thursday, October 13, and will continue with public hearings until November 25. In the latter stages of these hearings, the Commission will hear from key officials and Ministers, including the Prime Minister.

My plan will be to focus my commentary on the highlights of testimony from federal government officials and Ministers with particular attention to issues of intelligence and threat assessment reporting regarding the “Freedom Convoy.” I wrote a commissioned research paper for the POEC on “Intelligence and Public Order Emergencies” drawing from the available public material up until September 2022. You can find the paper on the Commission website here: https://publicorderemergencycommission.ca/files/documents/Policy-Papers/The-Role-of-Intelligence-in-Public-Order-Emergencies-Wark.pdf

I expect there will be many more revelations regarding the role of the Canadian national security and intelligence system in response to the Freedom Convoy protests as the classified record is opened up. I plan to cover these as central to the validity or otherwise of the government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act.

So please stay tuned.