2 Canadian counterintelligence soldiers took part in the anti-vaccine mandate protests, reports say
- Two members of Canada's elite counterterrorism unit are under investigation, multiple reports say.
- The unnamed soldiers were supporting Ottawa's Freedom Convoy movement, an official said.
Two Canadian counterintelligence soldiers are under investigation for taking part in the country's "Freedom Convoy" protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, officials said.
The individuals, who were not named, are part of the Joint Task Force 2, a special elite unit working in counterterrorism that sometimes also provides security for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Ottawa Citizen reported Sunday.
Gen. Steve Boivin, the commander of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, told CBC and Global News in a statement that the soldiers were already in the process of being removed from the Canadian Armed Forces.
Global News reported that their release was because they refused to be vaccinated despite a federal mandate requiring all public servants, including members of the Canadian Armed Forces, to do so.
Boivin told CBC that the soldiers had supported the protest "in some form or another," without giving further specifics.
"The Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) does not condone its members supporting and/or actively taking part in causes that jeopardize the apolitical imperative associated with their functions," Boivin told CBC and Global News.
Truckers created the Freedom Convoy demonstrations weeks ago to protest vaccine mandates for crossing the US border.
Since then, the protests have grown and the truckers have been joined by thousands of others demonstrating against COVID-19 restrictions in general.
Most of the protests have taken place in Ottawa, where the mayor declared a state of emergency last week.
A large convoy of trucks forced the Ambassador Bridge, a key US-Canada trading route that runs from Detroit to Ontario, to shut down for days. Police reopened the bridge just before midnight on Sunday.