Mr. Speaker, in response to (a), the Minister of Public Safety did not issue any directives or advice to the RCMP in relation to the rallies.
In response to (b), the RCMP did issue directives and advice to RCMP officers assigned to the rallies.
In response to (i), the director general and acting director of national criminal operations, contract and indigenous policing, RCMP national headquarters, did provide advice and directives.
In response to (ii), the advice and directives were the following: (a) Command for the “Axe the Tax” rally response will be led by the appropriate commander of the RCMP in the province or territory where the RCMP have police of jurisdiction status and in accordance with their local situational factors; operational direction will not be issued by RCMP national headquarters; (b) national criminal operations will facilitate communications between RCMP provincial and territorial commanders as well as their external police counterparts in order to share information and best practices; (c) national criminal operations facilitated the dissemination of legal advice produced by the legal services unit, RCMP; the content of that advice is protected by solicitor-client privilege; (d) national criminal operations facilitated the dissemination of intelligence and information across various RCMP jurisdictions in real time.
In response to (iii), the directives and advice were intended for the RCMP who have police of jurisdiction status in British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. However, the RCMP in Ontario and Quebec also participated in the communications in order to maintain situational awareness in participation with their external police counterparts.