Security expert. Mountie. Soldier: Meet three men working with the ‘Freedom convoy’

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This article was published 11/02/2022 (1049 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the imagination of Tom Quiggin, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was dead, strangled where he slept in a plot orchestrated by his own deputy, with his socks used as a garrote.

Quiggin, a former national intelligence analyst and part of the inner circle of leaders of the Ottawa occupation, wrote a fictional account of Trudeau’s assassination in a self-published novel about a global plot to destroy freedom.

In the book, Quiggin’s viciously unflattering caricature of Trudeau is unable to execute the plans of a global cabal — so his more ambitious deputy prime minister has him murdered.

The foreword, preface and introduction to The New Order of Fear: The Great Reset Trilogy, lay out Quiggin’s view that the western world is under threat from dangerous globalists who can be defeated by citizens using “open source intelligence” but that “the context of future challenges will be one of massive violence.”

His book isn’t burning up the best sellers’ list, but Quiggin was once well known in Canadian intelligence circles and in the early 2000s frequently quoted by the news media as an expert on Islamist terrorism.

Today, he stands with the leaders of the “Freedom convoy” occupying Ottawa, providing “protective intelligence” for protesters, many of whom carry “F— Trudeau” flags and call for the resignation of the prime minister and the dissolution of his government.

Quiggin is one of a several individuals with military, intelligence or law-enforcement backgrounds who have emerged as advisers or spokespeople for the occupation.

All of them have called for the protests to remain peaceful and have blamed unlawful behaviour on “agitators” trying to discredit the occupation. None of them has called for Trudeau’s death.

The Ottawa protest against COVID health restrictions and vaccine mandates has choked downtown streets for two weeks, forcing many businesses to close their doors and dismaying residents with the sounds of truck horns. There have been reports of harassment of the staff of various businesses, of the desecration of war memorials and of protesters carrying flags with hate symbols, including swastikas.

Increasingly, “Freedom convoy” organizers are disseminating videos and reports suggesting it has its own security and operational apparatus in place, bolstered by men such as Quiggin and ex-Mountie Daniel Bulford, who was once part of Trudeau’s RCMP protection detail.

It’s not clear what role these figures are playing beyond sending out updates through select alternative media personalities and their own social media channels.

Nevertheless, their presence within the convoy leadership circles worries University of Toronto historian Tim Sayle, who says these individuals could potentially provide surveillance and counter-surveillance methods to protesters.

“That operational and communication-security knowledge, I think that’s huge,” says Sayle, who studies intelligence and national security.

The ex-Mountie

Due to his long history with the RCMP and the prime minister’s protective detail, Bulford’s recent emergence at protest organizer news conferences caught the eye of those in intelligence circles.

“He has the most knowledge about police operations,” says Candyce Kelshall, of the Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Vancouver. “He knows exactly how police would respond. He knows their plans, because he was part of them.”

Bulford has been telling his story of leaving the RCMP because of vaccine mandates in protester-organized video statements since he quit the service in December.

His time with the force, which Bulford says spans nearly every province and territory in Canada and 15 years, informs his role as “liaison” with the “Adopt a Trucker” campaign. Bulford has said repeatedly that his role is to relay reports of public-security concerns to law-enforcement agencies from truckers and their supporters on the ground.

He has also repeatedly implied that his work as an RCMP officer gives him inside knowledge of what the agency’s tactical response to the protest will be.

“I would like to put people’s minds at ease. All the different police units (on the scene), I can assure you that that is all standard practice,” he said in a Feb. 3 news conference, one of the first given by convoy organizers in Ottawa. “We have been working closely with the OPS, OPP, RCMP and Parliamentary Protective Service right from early last week, liaising with them.”

RCMP spokesperson Robin Percival confirmed that Bulford did work for the RCMP, and that his last post was with the Emergency Response Team at National Division, but questions about whether members of the RCMP have been communicating with Bulford in his stated capacity as liaison for the “Freedom Convoy” went unanswered.

Ottawa police did not respond Friday to requests for comment on whether the force is communicating with Bulford, but said in previous statements that it is “working with organizers” to ensure the safe departure of protesters.

In general, Bulford emits a cheery view of the police on the ground.

A livestream video from Feb. 6 shows him walking in downtown streets while protests occur, and approaching a pair of Ottawa police officers bundled up for the cold weather.

“I have faith in you, that you’ll do the right thing,” Bulford says to them.

During a Thursday news conference, Bulford made a direct appeal to police officers in Ottawa.

“My message to them would be that we still believe in you, we still believe that you are the kind of people that will stand up for us and do the right thing.”

Bulford encouraged officers to refuse to arrest protesters, “if they are ordered to do so.”

“That’s all you have to do. And if enough of us stand up together … this can all end, and we can all get back to normal.”

Sayle said there is no reason to believe Canada’s police services are filled with extremists, but said it’s possible police officers who join the protests have networks and friends they may have influence over.

“I think the fact that these people are part of these organizations is a really important tool for their credibility and ability to recruit,” he said. “They provide a rallying point both now and in the future, because they were a part of the institutions that so many Canadians hold dear and look to maintain our safety.”

Bulford is part of an online group “Mounties for Freedom,” in which mostly anonymous members discuss vaccine mandates and their opposition to pandemic measures such as vaccine passports.

A Jan. 22 “open letter” posted on the organization’s website asks the Governor General to dissolve Parliament to send what it describes as “a clear message to Canadians that there is a constitutional crisis acknowledged by the Queen of Canada.”

While Canada is part of the British Commonwealth, the Queen has no political power, and the Governor General cannot arbitrary dissolve the government and call an election.

The Star reached out to Bulford through several channels including social media, the Mounties for Freedom website and family members. One family member said they would pass on the request to Bulford, but the Star received no further response.

He first rose to prominence within the anti-mandate community in Canada in late November, when he gave a long and occasionally tear-filled speech at a conference hosted by the Canadian COVID Care Alliance, a group opposing COVID-19 restrictions and promoting some alternative treatments for the virus — including ivermectin, a scientifically disproven COVID treatment.

In the speech, he paused often, looking up at the ceiling and pressing his lips together as his voice cracked with emotion. He drew comparisons between RCMP officers enforcing COVID-19 rules, to Canadian Japanese internment camps in the Second World War and past injustices in Canada.

“Look at our history, other stains on the Canada and the RCMP in particular, things that we have been a part of carrying out so-called lawful orders,” he said. “Orders to remove children from their homes to satisfy a government conformity initiative, or the registration and internment of Japanese Canadians during World War 2.”

The former soldier

Tom Marazzo, a former Canadian military member, has also emerged as a spokesperson for the convoy.

On his LinkedIn profile, Marazzo claims he was a Canadian Armed Forces officer between 1990 and 2015, before moving onto Georgian College to instruct software development courses.

He told the local news site Orillia Matters that he was fired from his contract role at the college after emailing 250 people an anti-vaccine mandate note.

The Star reached out to Marazzo through his active LinkedIn profile, but he refused to speak, saying he doesn’t do “MSM” an acronym for mainstream media.

“When I speak, it’s only directly to our supporters, live, without editing,” Marazzo wrote in a public response to the Star’s message.

Marazzo has appeared in staged briefings exclusive to protest participants and certain members of the alternative press, in which he has spoken broadly about the goals of the movement, the organizers’ desire to speak with government officials, and their intention to stay in Ottawa until all vaccine mandates in Canada are dropped.

“We are a peaceful protest. We want to go home but we are here for as long as the Canadian public wants us to be here,” he said Thursday, adding that they know the public wants them there because they continue to send money, food a fuel to the convoy.

Public opinion surveys have shown that while there is sympathy for the frustration of the protesers, the majority of Canadians oppose their occupation in Ottawa. The unions representing most of Canada’s truckers have said the protesters do not represent their members and that some 90 per cent of drivers are vaccinated and working.

The terrorism expert and writer

Quiggin, meanwhile, appeared beside Bulford in a news conference this week to push back against accusations made by Ottawa city councillors that the protesters are terrorists. Both men said they have seen terrorism in their professional careers and what is happening in Ottawa is not that.

Like Bulford, Quiggin walked through his resume, saying he is a court-recognized expert on terrorism, and pointing to the books he has written on the subject.

Until around 2017, Quiggin appeared in Canadian newspapers and news shows as a terrorism expert.

Journalists, including those at the National Post, Toronto Sun, Maclean’s and The Toronto Star touted his links to the influential Canadian think-tank, Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (TSAS).

In a statement to the Star, TSAS said while Quiggin may have attended some early meetings when the organization was forming in 2012, he “never played a significant role in the organization, nor has he served on any committees, received any funding etc. In addition, Mr. Quiggin is not a formal Affiliate of TSAS.”

Aside from the novel about Trudeau’s murder, Quiggin has published three books on intelligence and terrorism with small publishers. None were peer-reviewed from the large publishing houses typically used by academics in the field.

Quiggin did not respond to interview requests sent to him through his Twitter account for this story.

Each day, Quiggin publishes a one page intelligence report called “Official daily event and safety report” about the occupation. Each missive includes an aphorism for the day, a weather report, a joke and a “situational update” about recent events, which are predominately a review of that days news that often include his own political commentary.

“Regardless of your views on Freedom Convoy 2022, the actions of Premier Ford should frighten everyone,” Quiggin wrote in Friday’s report, referring to the premier’s declaration of emergency to end the related convoy blockade at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor.

“Premier Ford, with no evidence, is attempting to defund and criminalize average citizens who do not wish to submit to the Trudeau/Ford policy line. If this action succeeds, it will then be possible for governments to destroy any group or citizen by simply declaring them a threat.”

Thomas Juneau, a University of Ottawa professor who recently published a book on Canadian intelligence reporting with the University of Toronto Press, said that, in his view, these are not intelligence reports — which are by design apolitical and dispassionate summaries of facts for decision makers.

“It’s propaganda. It’s information operations. It’s to mobilize the troops. And that is an important point,” said Juneau of Quiggin’s reports, posted daily to his public Google Drive. “In the way, in his own universe of conspiracy theorists and far-right extremists, it’s actually done well.”

With files from Alex McKeen

Grant LaFleche is a St. Catharines-based investigative reporter with the Standard. Reach him via email: grant.lafleche@niagaradailies.com