Former public safety minister Ralph Goodale in an email to cabinet said he suspected the Freedom Convoy was a US neo-Nazi movement..The finding contradicted police memos denying protesters were violent extremists, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“It remains essential to delve deeply into the true genesis of this demonstration and who is controlling and directing it,” Goodale wrote in a February 6 email. “Stefanie Carvin suggests it's the work of organized right-wing extremists.” Goodale was referring to Associate Professor Stephanie Carvin of Carleton University, a frequent critic of the convoy..“It may even have US roots,” wrote Goodale. “She could be correct. Our intelligence and national security experts must absolutely get to bottom of this horrific set of events and prepare for the next one.”.Goodale made his comments in an email to Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc. The message was forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office eight days before cabinet invoked the Emergencies Act against protesters..Minister LeBlanc in testimony at the Public Order Emergency Commission said Goodale’s email summarized a telephone conversation between the two on February 6..“I thought he put in a very concise way that I may not have appreciated until that conversation with him, the sort of escalating orders of government that have to respond to these situations,” said LeBlanc..Goodale was public safety minister when he lost re-election in Regina-Wascana in the 2019 campaign. He was subsequently appointed as Canada’s $327,000-a year ambassador to the United Kingdom..Goodale in a February 13 email to cabinet repeated his claim the Freedom Convoy was a neo-Nazi effort. “The disruptive events in Ottawa seem to have been extensively and meticulously pre-organized,” wrote Goodale..“A critical question is to what extent the protests in Canada reflect legitimate homegrown concern about the impacts of the prolonged lockdowns and how much of this activity is actually organized, animated, directed and financed by alt-right insurrectionists from the United States,” wrote Goodale..Federal records show of 201 trucking companies that participated in the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, only three were US firms. Of 254,000 donors who gave $24.5 million to protesters a majority, 59%, were Canadian..The Ontario Provincial Police Intelligence Bureau that investigated the protest concluded there was no foreign or neo-Nazi influence..“It is not an ‘extremist’ movement,” read a February 22 police memo..“There are significant differences between seeing political dissent or opponents as ‘extreme,’ a highly subjective measure, and the legal connotations of ideologically motivated violent extremism or terrorism.”
