In a summary of a Feb. 6 call filed with the inquiry looking into the government’s decision to invoke the Emergency Act to deal with the convoy protest, David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), described what he was seeing his service. “There [are] No foreign actors have been identified at this point supporting or funding this convoy,” the call summary said. “FINTRAC is supporting this work/assessment and the banks are also engaged. “The money GoFundMe and other fundraising platforms [are] it is monitored by FINTRAC and the banks and ensures that it is not used for non-peaceful purposes. “CSIS also hasn’t seen foreign money coming from other states to support it. There’s not a lot of energy and support from the US in Canada.” The summary was presented on Wednesday to the Public Order Emergency Committee, which is investigating whether the federal government’s use of emergency powers to end the protests was justified. CSIS has not yet responded to questions from CBC News about a summary of the call or how the spy agency defines “foreign agents.” In an e-mail late Wednesday afternoon, Cecely Roy, press secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pointed to a series of events that occurred between the Feb. 6 meeting attended by Vigneault and the decision to invoke the emergency law . They included endorsements of the convoy protest from prominent Americans, criticism from prominent officials in three states of GoFundMe’s decision to cancel the protest’s crowdfunding campaign, and a Feb. 11 phone call between Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden that included discussion of Americans and global financial support flowing into the protest. “As the illegal foreclosures and occupation progressed, the government continued to learn more, including about the foreign source of funds,” Roy wrote. “The Commission’s work continues and it will hear from many witnesses on this and other issues in the coming weeks.” The call involving Vigneault came two days after GoFundMe announced it was ending a fundraiser that had raised more than $10 million for the motorcade protest. On the same day, a new fundraiser was launched on rival crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo. In the statement it issued after invoking the emergency law on February 14, the federal government cited donations from outside Canada as one of the factors behind its decision. “Anecdotal reports of donations outside Canada to support the protesters received credence when, on February 13, 2022, hackers of the crowdfunding website, GiveSendGo.com, published hacked data that revealed information about donors and the amount of donations directed to the protesters,” he wrote the government. In testimony before a parliamentary committee on March 3, GoFundMe and GiveSendGo officials confirmed that donations to support the convoy came from people in Canada and other countries. GiveSendGo head Jacob Wells said 60 percent of the millions of dollars raised on his platform came from Canada and 37 percent came from the United States. GoFundMe president Juan Benitez said 88 percent of the money raised on his platform and 86 percent of donors came from Canada. CSIS Director David Vigneault told the federal government that the trucker convoy was “primarily a domestic issue.” (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press) The summary of the February 6 call also quotes Vigneault as saying that CSIS is working closely with border enforcement partners, including the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency. “CSIS has safeguards, and they have been quite effective,” the summary says. “There is no significant organization of trucks coming from the US into Canada as part of this convoy. It is primarily a domestic issue.” Vigneault also downplayed the presence of extremists among the protesters. “There are some people from other causes who are the hardened elements who will probably use violence, but they don’t see that as their mission,” says the summary of Vigneault’s remarks. “They are in various locations such as Parliament, Quebec City, Toronto, Alberta, however, they are not actively participating or organizing it and probably using it as a recruiting ground.” The report of Vigneault’s comments appears to contradict part of the government’s reasoning for invoking the emergency law. “The protests have become a rallying point for anti-government and anti-authoritarian, anti-vaccination, conspiracy theorist and white supremacist groups across Canada and other Western countries,” the government wrote in its statement invoking the act. “The protesters have a variety of ideological grievances, with demands ranging from an end to all public health restrictions to the overthrow of the elected government.”
