Senator Batters: Senator Gold, how will a bank know that someone has “stopped participating in the protest” and then unfreeze their bank account?

Senator Carignan: Again, I refer you to section 129 of the Criminal Code, which would have allowed charges to be laid against the tow truck operators who were refusing to do their job. My question is on funding and the seizure of bank accounts. How did seizing bank accounts help the police remove the trucks from Wellington Street more quickly?

Hon. Pamela Wallin: Honourable senators, my question is for the government leader, Senator Gold. This morning, you said that people who have concerns about what has happened to their bank accounts, be they frozen or that there is some other impact on their economic or financial life, could appeal to their bankers, to other organizations or even to the police. However, it is my understanding that this bill explicitly states that there is immunity from liability for financial institutions.

Senator Gold: What I said was of the thousands and thousands and thousands of donations, it is a relatively small percentage of those that have been targeted for investigation with the result of their bank accounts being temporarily frozen.

What I intended to communicate through that — and it seems to be unclear — was that this was not a blanket witch hunt against people who, for whatever ideological reasons, decided to support this protest in January or early February. But as of February 14, those who continued to or for the first time became engaged in the activity that was deemed illegal by a law of Canada, then they and only they are the ones that are being targeted by the measures. “Target” is the wrong word. They are subject to the measures that are promulgated under the act. That’s that point.

Nor, honourable colleague, have I said in this chamber or do I believe, for what that is worth, that everybody who is in Ottawa or elsewhere, on highways cheering on the convoys, associate themselves with the extremist and repugnant views represented by the signs that I have described. I have never said it; I don’t believe it. The Prime Minister doesn’t believe it either.

But what is indisputable is that the residents of Ontario, of Ottawa and the people of Canada were exposed to folks who, at one and the same time, were bathing in hot tubs and having their little children bounce on bouncy castles while others were promoting ideas that are hurtful and repugnant to every value that we all stand up for in Canada.

Again I repeat, it is not to tar everybody in the same breath. I would never do that, but we cannot deny what comes out of the mouth of key mobilizers and organizers of this convoy. You cannot rewrite history. You cannot untweet or delete the social media messages of people that have hundreds of thousands of followers and are encouraging them to join this protest when they have made clear that they are proud of their agenda. That’s what I was trying to point out; it was not to tar Canadians who came here because they are tired of COVID measures.

It’s to say that the threats to our security gave rise to the need to invoke that, and it may not be possible to fully resolve them today, at least according to the information and the advice that we’re getting from the police community we charge with protecting us.