Government refuses to say how many military aircraft might have flown over Freedom Convoy

Previous reports in the Ottawa Citizen detailed how military surveillance aircraft flew over Ottawa during 'Freedom Convoy' protests operated by Canadian special forces.

National Defence acknowledged the aircraft was in use by Canadian special forces as part of a training mission on Feb. 10 but stated the flight had nothing to do with the protests.

Conservative MP Philip Lawrence from the riding of Northumberland—Peterborough asked the Defence Ministry for details about the previously confirmed flights that surveilled the nation's capital during the weeks-long peaceful, anti-restriction Convoy to Ottawa protests.

Providing the requested details would require a manual search of data for over 115 RCAF flights that used the Ottawa or Gatineau airports between January 1, 2022, and May 1, 2022, which could not be completed in the allotted time.

While not in the scope of this Order Paper question, National Defence previously shared information on this matter. The training was planned prior to, and was unrelated to, the domestic event that was taking place at the time.

The federal government invoked the never-before-used Emergencies Act in February 2022 to end the demonstrations in Ottawa, arresting protesters, freezing their bank accounts, and seizing their assets and property.