SASKATCHEWAN – Protests at Regina RCMP Depot - and at police stations across the country – could erupt into political violence, say Veterans 4 Freedom, which advocates for non-violent action to restore Canadian's freedoms and Charter rights.
V4F urged people not to join a freedom group that has plans to stage protests across the country on Sept. 11. V4F participated in the trucker convoy in Ottawa in January and February and worked with the truckers to help them. The trucker convoy was able to stay ahead of the police and government for weeks with the help of V4F, Police on Guard, as well as help from Daniel Bulford – a former elite RCMP member who was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s personal sniper.
“They're going to drop people into an actual violent confrontation,” Tom Quiggin, a former military intelligence officer who was one of the country’s top counter-terrorism experts, told SASKTODAY.ca during a Zoom interview Thursday.
“Folks are going to get killed, folks are going to get injured.”
Worst of all, this will “gift wrap the narrative for the government,” added Quiggin, who served in Bosnia. He worked for the RCMP for six-and-a-half years in national security on terrorism cases, as well as investigations into judges. In addition, he worked for the Privy Council Office, the International War Crimes Tribunal, and did intelligence assessments for Cabinet and the Prime Minister’s office. He was also a court expert on terrorism and an operational risk manager for the Bank of Canada.
“The government is looking for excuses to go after the freedom convoy, to go after anybody that expresses discontent," said Quiggin.
Living in dangerous times
Given the current fragile state of Canadian civil society, we live in perilous times, said Quiggin.
“People really don't trust the government that much anymore,” he said, adding they also don't trust the health care system, the media, the banks, the RCMP, or Elections Canada.
“Trust in civil society is breaking down.”
Quiggin said because of this people are desperate to find a leader and a belief system, and he fears misguided leaders may take people down the wrong path.
“I don't discount the narrative right now,” said Quiggin. “There are a lot of people out there in pain. They're suffering. They've lost jobs, they've lost houses, they've lost careers and on top of that they aren’t double vaccinated.
“I also fear greatly that our own government - as demonstrated by the convoy - is perfectly willing to entertain the most horrific violations of civil rights in order to maintain their version of the dialogue.”
Protests could give feds reason to crack down
Quiggin said V4F looked into the group’s plans for Sept. 11. He said the group talked about surrounding buildings, wearing uniforms and requisitioning a courtroom, which means taking one by force. Quiggin said people would be brought to trial and if found guilty, executed. Videos on social media do show group members stating this course of action for the Sept. 11 protests.
“You’re talking about an extra-judicial court, which is going to force people into a room, give them a kangaroo trial, and then kill them,” said Quiggin, adding that if a violent incident is created it will give the government the rationale and reason they need to go after anybody who has ever expressed opposition to the government.
On Wednesday, Marcus Ray stepped down as leader of a freedom group planning to hold protests at police stations on Sept. 11. He denied that he promoted violence and denied that he is a black op operative for the government, CSIS or the RCMP. Ray called the accusations “insanity.”
Ray told SASKTODAY.ca that five people from across Canada were taking over the leadership.
Planned protests have ‘trappings’ of Black Op: V4F
Quiggin and Jeff Evely said the planned protests on RCMP and police stations may be a trap.
“It has all the kinds of trappings of certain black police ops and certain government operations that are known colloquially as false flags where the state, for example, might frame up another party for any number of reasons,” Evely told SASKTODAY.ca during a Zoom interview Thursday.
“Usually, it's an impetus to go to war but in recent cases, it's been used more for things like cracking down on dissidents within a certain country,” he said. “So the main concern here is that a lot of good people might get taken into what is maybe a scam, or maybe a false flag, or maybe just a misguided attempt that is genuine,” added Evely who is a 20-year Canadian Armed Forces veteran who served until 2021. He was an aerospace telecommunications and information systems technician and was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also served in the U.S. for four years while employed with NORAD.
A Black Op – or black operation – is a covert or secret operation by either a government, military, or paramilitary agency. One of its key features is that it’s secret and can’t be traced back to who is conducting the operation. Secrecy is often needed for deniability due to the potential that it may be unethical or illegal. A Black Op involves a significant degree of deception to conceal who is behind the operation and make it appear that another entity is responsible.
“Innocent people might get involved in that and so we just want to make sure that nothing like that happens and people don’t get hurt and they don’t end up going to prison for no good reason," said Evely.
Likewise, Daniel [Danny] Bulford - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s personal RCMP sniper who resigned in opposition to forced vaccination – urged Canadians not to join the protests planned at police stations across the country.
“I don’t want any Canadians to get themselves put in prison when real changes are happening,” Bulford tweeted on June 16. “Including Marcus Ray and Christopher James. I fear their plan will play right into JT’s hand. Stay strong.”
The Office of the Minister of Public Safety for Canada said there is no basis for V4F’s assertion that the planned protests for Sept. 11 may be a Black Op of the government, CSIS, or the RCMP.
“This is a totally nuts conspiracy theory that has no basis in reality,” Alexander Cohen, Director of Communications for the Office of the Minister of Public Safety, told SASKTODAY.ca in an email Friday.
RCMP Head Quarters in Ottawa also disregarded V4F’s accusations that it may be a Black Op.
“The RCMP does not comment on rumours purported by others,” Robin Percival, from media relations National Communication Services for the RCMP told SASKTODAY.ca on Friday. “As mentioned earlier, we are aware of this situation, and are monitoring it closely.”
The Prime Minister’s office was also contacted and they deferred comment to the Office of the Minister of Public Safety.
Black Ops or ‘false flags’ occur in Canada
Evely said certain agencies in Canada have become involved in Black Ops in the past and that anyone in a desperate situation is a prime target for blackmail or bribery to become involved.
Evely pointed to CSIS and its alleged involvement with the Heritage Front in the 80s and 90s.
In 1994, the Toronto Sun reported that CSIS had been giving money to Grant Bristow of the Heritage Front since the late 80s. The Black Op was reported to involve illegal access to answering machines and voice mailboxes of anti-racists.
The Globe and Mail reported that Bristow received about $60,000 annually from CSIS. The Winnipeg Free Press wrote an editorial saying it was ironic CSIS created an adversary only to obliterate it.
Other alleged targets of CSIS investigations included the Reform Party of Canada, which was led by Preston Manning.
Manning had called for a parliamentary investigation into whether Bristow was spying on his party on behalf of CSIS.
Nick Walsh – who volunteered for Preston Manning in 1992 – told SASKTODAY.ca on Friday that he remembers Grant Bristow coming to the Reform Party and Walsh said he believed at the time that Bristow was sent by CSIS.
“His job [I think] was to destabilize the party and make supporters look like right-wing lunatics,” said Walsh. “Manning and Harper discovered him and flushed him out.
"Bristow got close to Manning and then started to say things, as a Reform Party member, that made us look bad,” added Walsh. “He tried to inject racism into the mix and talked about canning people as punishment for certain crimes. He wanted us to be seen as extreme right-wing white supremacists. In reality, racism or ethnic profiling was never something that Preston even thought about. His thing was, ‘What is the right thing to do for all Canadians.’”
In a December 1994 Public Safety Canada report to the Solicitor General of Canada, they concluded that CSIS didn’t spy on the Reform Party.
Evely pointed to the Nova Scotia mass shooting in April 2020 where Gabriel Wortman killed 22 and injured three. Evely questioned the RCMP’s role and pointed out that Wortman was taking over $300,000 from Brinks.
“The only people who will ever do that are confidential informants of federal agencies, like the RCMP in particular,” said Evely.
In June 2020, Macleans reported that Wortman’s case had the hallmarks of an undercover operation. They reported that police sources said Wortman’s withdrawal of $475,000 was highly irregular and was how an RCMP “agent” would get money.
The RCMP repeatedly said they didn’t have a “special relationship” with Wortman, reported Macleans.
Evely said he doesn’t find it difficult to believe a Canadian agency would conduct a Black Op against anyone from the freedom movement after what he saw happen in Ottawa to the truckers in the convoy in January and February.
“They threw every smear in the book [against truckers] including stealing food from the homeless, and arson, and attempted rapes, and then a crackdown on the whole convoy talking about weapons. Not a single weapon was found.”
Evely said he thinks the authorities are “desperate now because they didn't get anything,” and are now looking for “evidence to justify extreme measures” they took against the peaceful truckers.
V4F works with other freedom groups
Evely said V4F is working with multiple freedom groups including Mounties for Freedom, the Canadian Citizens Coalition, as well as groups of nurses and doctors and other professionals.
“It's just a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff,” said Evely.
Likewise, Quiggin agreed.
“It’s an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary process.”
Quiggin said the Convoy to Ottawa was the first push back against the federal government and united people.
“There had been lots of little things going on but that was the first one that struck a chord right across the country.”
Avoid violence
V4F said they want to avoid any violence.
“We're not going down that road,” said Quiggin. “We're ex-military. We're veterans. We have been to countries where things go sideways and we don't like it. We have been in Bosnia, Croatia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali, Chad, the Golan Heights, the Sinai Desert, and Columbia; we've got guys and gals that have been to the stupidest countries in the world. We know what stupid looks like. And we know what civil unrest looks like. And we are absolutely determined that we don't go down that path.”
V4F’s plan
Quiggin said V4F has no interest in overthrowing the federal government. Instead, they want to hold them accountable.
“We're very interested in accountability in government. We're very interested in having politicians actually explain what they're doing, why they're doing it, and what evidence they provide for it.
“We have a Constitution, we have a Bill of Rights, we have a Charter of Rights, and we have a Criminal Code of Canada. Here’s a crazy idea, let's run with them. Let's run the government in accordance with the Constitution, in accordance with the Charter of Rights, in accordance with the Criminal Code of Canada, and our guess is stuff would work a whole lot better if we stuck to the rules and actually made them work.”
‘You’re the problem - you’re the solution’
Quiggin said Canada’s economy “is going into the toilet."
“People I know in the Central Bank community, who speak off record, are telling me we're looking at a recession, followed by a depression followed by a possible sovereign debt crisis for a lot of countries. And by the way, Canada is touted to be the worst performer out of the countries that are in the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]. So economically, our future isn't too bright and that ties to social unrest.”
Quiggin – who is an expert on social and civil unrest – said the trigger for violence is food.
“So if people are suffering abuse, but they're eating, they'll put up with a lot of it. But when the price of food spikes suddenly, or if the food just disappears, that's typically the trigger for violence. So here in Canada, I don't think we're there yet. But I would suggest to you that between now, and let's say, January, February, March of next year, somewhere around 30 per cent of Canadians are going to hit the wall. And by hitting the wall, I mean, it's going to be ‘heat or eat.’ It's going to be literally that bad; ‘I got 20 bucks left, do I put that on the heat for the house, or do I go to the grocery store, or do I put gas in the car? So that's my former Central Bank hat speaking there. About 30 per cent of households in Canada are sitting right on the line, or they're already past the tipping point.”
Quiggin said with increasing costs of fuel, food, natural gas, rising interest rates, mortgage costs going up, credit card debt going up, and savings running out, this will be a difficult winter.
He said he doesn’t believe there will be a food shortage but rather people won’t be able to afford food.
He said he believes things in Canada will get worse before they get better and the next three to five years will be tough.
“We’re in a rough spot and it's going to get a whole lot rougher this winter and next year,” said Quiggin. “But coming out of that we will see more and more people demanding the government get back into the business of governing and get out of the business of social engineering.”
Quiggin said the Liberal government is good at virtue signaling but not good at governing and eventually enough people will be fed up and force the government to get back to the business of governing.
“I'm actually optimistic there's enough people left who have an interest in good government to force the government back into line. I think they're going to forcibly restructure government and forcibly restructure the health care system in order to force these things back into line itself.”
Quiggin said to create change people need to get involved in all levels of government.
Email a bunch of MP’s and get involved in your communities, he said.
“Get involved with the school board, find out what the school board is doing and start asking questions. Show up to meetings. Go down to a city hall meeting and say, ‘What are you clowns doing?'"
Quiggin said voter apathy is a problem and that Trudeau was elected as the minority Prime Minister of Canada with only 21 per cent of all registered voters, which means 79 per cent of Canadians either didn’t vote for him or didn’t vote at all.
“So it's great to blame Trudeau. It's great to blame the World Economic Forum. It's great to blame Chrystia Freeland. It's great to blame pseudo-conservatives like Erin O'Toole. But at the end of the day, the problem is us. We are the problem. If you don't get out there and vote, if you don't participate in your community, if you don't raise concerns with government, they'll just keep doing this junk.”
Quiggin said the trucker convoy to Ottawa was the first visible manifestation of Canadians standing up and saying enough is enough.
“When I first got really positive was when I was watching all those people out on the overpasses in Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It’s like minus 25 degrees and they're out there dancing away – on top of overpasses - cheering everybody on. And it was the same thing here in Ottawa. It's minus 20 friggin degrees and everybody's packed into the downtown core. And it was a party. It was great. It was positive. It showed what people can do when they get together. So yeah, go to your local protests, join a local group, join a political party, get involved, get out there, do something and as James Topp would say, ‘Be your own hero.’ It's you. You're the problem. You're the solution.”
