An Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) ‘Person of Interest’ (POI) document, dated January 30, 2022, said a former RCMP officer — whose name and photo have been redacted — “is believed to have leaked the premier’s schedule a few months ago .” The OPP cited the RCMP for the allegation. The document does not say to whom the information was allegedly leaked. The document was made public as part of the Public Order Emergency Commission inquiry, which is holding hearings in Ottawa to investigate the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergency Act to end an anti-vaccination protest that had brought downtown Ottawa to a standstill for weeks last winter. In a statement submitted to the inquiry Friday, Daniel Bulford, a 15-year RCMP veteran who resigned from the Mounties in December 2021, acknowledged he was the subject of the profile. He denied leaking any information. “The POI Profile conducted by the Ontario Provincial Police states that I am believed to have leaked the Prime Minister’s schedule some months prior to January 30, 2022. This is categorically false,” Bulford said in the statement. “The first I ever heard of this allegation was when I read the POI Profile on October 21, 2022. I have never leaked anything to anyone or any commercial I acquired in my duties as a member of the RCMP and Emergency Response Team.” Bulford said after his testimony that he did not know why the document suggested the program was leaked. “I can’t say, I suspect [OPP] probably some level of information was given by the RCMP,” Bulford said in response to a reporter’s question. “I can say with 100 percent certainty that I have never done anything that would violate the Security of Information Act or my oath of secrecy.” The RCMP have yet to respond to CBC questions about the allegation in the OPP document. Bulford told the inquest that he served as a sniper-observer with the RCMP’s National Emergency Response Team for most of his RCMP career. He said the RCMP revoked his security clearance after he spoke out against the federal government’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate for Mounties, which took effect in October 2021, and Bulford resigned from the Mounties in December 2021. “I knew I would be subject to disciplinary action and after considering what my options were in this regard, I discovered that if I was found guilty of misconduct, which I suspected would be the case, I could lose about half the transfer value of my pension,” Bulford said in his deposition. “So I made the decision to quit out of fear that I won’t be able to raise my family adequately financially in the future.” Bulford told the inquest that he later took part in the self-styled Freedom Convoy demonstration. He said he was a “volunteer security coordinator” and “police liaison” with the convoy that started on January 26, 2022.
