Declaration of Emergency Committee on May 10th, 2022

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Did you at any point up to or during the convoy protest inform or remind the minister that he has the legislative power under section 5?

[Commr Brenda Lucki]

No.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Why would you, right?

Section 20 of the RCMP Act also says that the minister may enter into arrangements with any province or any municipality to aid in “the administration of justice...and in carrying into effect the laws in force therein”.

Did the minister ever talk about invoking the RCMP Act to possibly deal with the protests?

[Commr Brenda Lucki]

No. Under the provincial policing service agreements, we have section 9. The commanding officer, if he or she requires additional resources, would ask for a section 9, which has to go through the minister to the provinces.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

I have one last, quick question.

We know, in comparison, we had the—

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

I'm sorry, Mr. Motz, your time is up.

Thank you, Mr. Motz.

We'll move to Mr. Lamoureux.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I want to try to get a couple of really good, quick questions in.

When I think of the whole issue of the threshold, I really appreciated it, Ms. Lucki, when you said this was the first time you'd seen a protest such as this. A couple of things came to my mind when you said that.

One is the fact that the City of Ottawa declared a state of emergency, the Province of Ontario declared a state of emergency and, in fact, my home province declared a state of emergency. There was an interesting letter that was written by the premier and cited in The Free Press. It said that in the Feb 11 letter, the premier was pleading with the Prime Minister to intervene at the Emerson blockade. According to the article, in the Feb 11 letter, the premier asked Trudeau to take “immediate and effective” action as she pleaded for “national leadership that only...the federal government can provide." The article goes on to say:

Her Feb. 11 letter said the situation was urgent and blockades that disrupt "this critical corridor—even temporarily—create potential dangers, impose severe hardships on all Manitobans and cause severe economic loss and damage to Manitoba and Canadian businesses."

I believe the Province of Alberta—I think it might have been the minister of transport—said, “Look, we can't get these trucks moved because we don't have tow trucks”, and appealed to Ottawa. I don't know exactly which minister it was, but I would suspect you would have been aware of all the things that I mentioned, Ms. Lucki.

[Commr Brenda Lucki]

Yes. I was not aware of them in detail, but yes.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Yes.

You made the comment that this was the first time you saw a protest such as this. Can you recall when you've had different levels of government and different provincial governments all coming to Ottawa and dealing with a national protest? Can you recall anything of that nature?

[Commr Brenda Lucki]

Not off the top of my head, no.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

That's interesting.

There was another thing I thought was interesting. This is a wonderful quote. I get a lot of this. It says, “I have [a] lady in my riding [who] had her bank account frozen for buying a $20 Freedom Convoy Tshirt”.

I listened to your comments, and it seems to be at odds with anyone purchasing a T-shirt and then getting their bank account frozen.

Are you aware of anything of that nature?

[Commr Brenda Lucki]

No. We did not target people who donated to the convoy. We only provided the names of people who were within the illegal blockades. We provided names or driver information, and the protest organizers. Nobody who was simply donating or buying merchandise for the protest, unless they were inside the blocked area, would have had their name provided.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

I can tell my constituents—as I did—that if they purchased a T-shirt, they have nothing to fear. The RCMP and the banks are not going to freeze their account. That was good information I provided. Is that correct?

[Commr Brenda Lucki]

I believe so, yes.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Do you have some of the latest figures for the number of accounts that were frozen, and how much money they would have contained? If so, would you be able to provide that to the committee?

[Commr Brenda Lucki]

Yes. I'll pass it over to Deputy Commissioner Mike Duheme, who has those numbers.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Thank you very much.

I appreciate both of your presentations. I believe Mrs. Bendayan has a couple of questions—after the answer to mine, of course.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Go ahead, deputy.

[D/Commr Michael Duheme]

We submitted information to the bank, and they froze 257 financial products by different institutions. These products would include bank and corporate accounts and credit cards. There was the disclosure of 57 entities to financial institutions, including individuals and owners or drivers of vehicles involved in the blockade. We also identified 170 Bitcoin wallet addresses that were shared with virtual currency exchanges.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Can we get a copy of that?

[D/Commr Michael Duheme]

Unfortunately, I don't have a total amount for what you're looking for.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Okay.

Go ahead, Rachel.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Madam Chair, how much time is remaining?

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Thirty seconds.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Will there be a second round?