OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Canada’s Minister of Public Safety has alleged that some of the Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa made rape threats.
Marco Mendicino made the startling claim to justify the Trudeau government’s use of the Emergencies Act to disperse the peaceful protest and freeze bank accounts.
“There were Ottawans who were subjected to intimidation, harassment, threats of rape, and those were all supported by charges,” said Mendicino last Friday during a Public Safety committee meeting to investigate the so-called “Occupation of Ottawa and the Federal Government’s Response to Convoy Blockades.”
“We got the advice from our law enforcement that we met the threshold (to invoke the EA).”
Trudeau’s public safety minister, Marco Mendicino, says invoking the Emergencies Act was justified to squash the Freedom Convoy protest because truckers were potential rapists.
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No Freedom Convoy member has been charged with sexual assault.
Mendicino made the remarks after Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Raquel Dancho asked him if he could confirm if there was a “serious” threat to public safety in Ottawa during the protests.
Mendicino claimed that people in Ottawa were terrorized by protesters and that for every “one” person who might have felt safe at the protests, there were “probably thousands” who did not feel safe. However, countless social media streams showed a peaceful crowd throughout the three week demonstration.
Mendicino’s claim that Ottawa residents felt in danger of rape by Freedom Convoy protesters was criticized later in the meeting by CPC MP Larry Brock. The Member for Brantford/Brant reminded Mendicino that not once during the House of Commons debate regarding the EA did allegations of rape surface.
“The most disturbing aspect of what I hear is this rape allegation [sic], a very heinous crime,” said Brock.
“We debated this particular issue for over 40 hours. Not once did the prime minister, did you or any other senior member of cabinet or any member of your backbench raise a rape allegation.”
Brock then asked Mendicino if he would be providing the committee with “proof.”
To this Mendicino replied that the lack of criminal charges “doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”
Two of the principal Freedom Convoy organizers, Pat King and Tamara Lich, are still in jail after being denied bail.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the EA on February 14, claiming it was needed to quell Freedom Convoy protesters. The demonstrators had been in Ottawa for three weeks protesting COVID vaccine mandates.
The EA empowered the government to freeze the bank accounts of anyone associated with the convoy without a court order, including those who donated to the Freedom Convoy. The government proceeded to put a block on several accounts.
Canadian Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland admitted the reason some Freedom Convoy supporters’ bank accounts were frozen under the EA was to “convince” donors to “listen to reason.”
She then said that some accounts will stay locked while promising others would be unfrozen.
However, last week, a top director for Canada’s official money regulator admitted that those who donated to the truckers’ Freedom Convoy just wanted to support the “cause,” adding that the contributions had nothing to do with financing “terrorism.”
Trudeau revoked the EA on February 23.