Emergency law investigation: Chancellor’s office staff says Bergen has privately admitted to concerns over involvement with Freedom Convoy

OTTAWA – A staff member at the prime minister’s office has privately acknowledged concerns that former Conservative Party interim leader Candice Bergen was involved with ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters last winter, while the prime minister to listen to their views, but Bergen denies this.

A summary of an interview with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s senior aide was released Thursday by a public inquiry into the federal government’s decision to invoke the emergency law on February 14.

The document said Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, asked if Bergen could help, and the two leaders said they would reach out to protesters in a Feb. 3 phone call. talked about.

“MS. Telford added that during the call, Bergen admitted he had serious concerns about who the federal government could get involved with and set a bad precedent for.

The conversation took place on Bergen’s first day in office, when he openly challenged the Trudeau administration in the House of Commons for not providing “olive branches” to protesters.

During the interrogation period, she accused the prime minister of needing to come up with a plan to make protesters “feel they were being listened to.” are threatening the

Bergen said Thursday that he has alternate memories of the Feb. 3 call with Trudeau. She called the Prime Minister to congratulate him on becoming a leader, and said they had talked about many things.

“I asked him if he would consider reaching out and holding out olive branches to people who came to Ottawa. Told.”

During the protests, as the party discussed how to respond to the protests, Bergen told several senior Conservatives via email: shift immediately. So we need to turn this into a (prime minister’s) problem. What will he do as a first step to end this?” A screenshot of an email with the subject line “Statement for Feedback” was obtained by the Canadian Press during the protest and was first released by The Globe and was reported to Post. The Canadian Press has not confirmed the rest of his chain of emails.

Telford said Thursday that federal officials considered the possibility of engaging with protesters on more than one occasion as a possible option to end the lockdown, but ultimately the option was largely supported across the government. I didn’t.

“There were too many unanswered questions,” she said.

“It wasn’t clear on either side of the debate with whom, what the debate would be about and what the outcome would be.”

Trudeau’s senior staff appeared on the second and final day of hearings held by the Commission. The hearing is investigating the federal government’s decision to invoke emergency legislation in response to protests that have stalled downtown Ottawa and closed the Canada-US border.

This report by the Canadian Press was first published on November 24, 2022.