Juno News - January 19, 2023


BMO CEO called Convoy protesters “terrorists”


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

153.46687

Word Count

498

Sentence Count

25


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Andrew Lawton here in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023.
00:00:05.140 The world's global elites, banking leaders, national leaders all meeting in the Congress Centre just a little bit over there.
00:00:11.640 You may recall during the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings in Canada,
00:00:15.200 Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is an invited guest here at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting,
00:00:22.140 shared minutes of her meeting with banking executives on the eve of the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act just shy of one year ago.
00:00:30.240 And in those meeting minutes, Minister Freeland noted that Daryl slash BMO, a reference to Daryl White, the CEO of BMO,
00:00:37.460 had actually called for the convoy organizers to be classified as terrorists under Canada's terrorist financing measures
00:00:43.880 so that banks could intervene and freeze their accounts and perhaps seize their assets.
00:00:48.960 Now, I've asked BMO to comment on this and have not received any response whatsoever.
00:00:53.440 But I did run into BMO CEO Daryl White on the streets of Davos and decided to ask him directly
00:00:58.320 why he wanted to label convoy protesters as terrorists.
00:01:01.980 Minister Freeland said during the Public Order Emergency Commission that you had wanted to call the convoy protesters terrorists
00:01:07.660 to deal with their financing. Why was that?
00:01:09.820 So I would never call the convoy protesters terrorists. What was said was that in order for the banks to be helpful,
00:01:23.960 there are certain protocols. And those protocols include a sanction where we can, in fact, help in that case.
00:01:32.740 Otherwise, it's not our business to interfere in the affairs of anyone's finances, truckers or otherwise.
00:01:39.280 One of the other banking executives on that call had pushed back a little bit and said that they didn't want the banks
00:01:44.080 to be weaponized. Was that a view you shared?
00:01:46.640 Oh, it's always a view I shared. I don't think banks should be weaponized any more than any other industry.
00:01:51.620 I think we have jobs to do and we do it for Canadians. And I think generally, in fact, more than generally,
00:01:56.780 we do it pretty well.
00:01:57.420 Did you support the financial measures?
00:02:02.160 As you can see there, according to Minister Freeland's handwritten notes,
00:02:05.880 Daryl slash BMO said label them as terrorists.
00:02:08.560 He also complained that Canada was being viewed as a banana republic by investors around the world.
00:02:14.740 Freeland pushed back against that and told Mr. White to tell the investor that Canada is not like the USA
00:02:20.380 who had people literally invade their legislature.
00:02:23.860 Now, Mr. White today is saying that he never wants to see banks weaponized,
00:02:28.320 but he wouldn't answer the question as to whether he supported those measures coming into effect in the first place.
00:02:34.180 I remind you that Minister Freeland's notes from that call show only one banking CEO in Canada
00:02:39.520 pushing back against what the federal government was doing.
00:02:42.960 For True North from Davos, I'm Andrew Lawton.
00:02:44.720 For True North from Davos, I'm Andrew Lawton.