OTTAWA – August 17, 2026 – The Liberal government, through the RCMP, distributed a Freedom Convoy-related blacklist containing personal information to the Canadian operations of several foreign banks, including the Bank of China, and the list was later circulated to thousands of financial firms across Canada, according to parliamentary records and subsequent reporting.
The blacklist, initially focused on approximately 201 trucking companies and later expanded to include names, birth dates and phone numbers of supporters, originated under the Emergency Economic Measures Order invoked by the Liberal government during the 2022 protests. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office compiled an initial list of companies, which the RCMP then shared with financial institutions so they could identify any property belonging to designated individuals and cease dealings with them.
Among the recipients were the Canadian operations of the Bank of China — a major Chinese state-owned commercial bank headquartered in Beijing and ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party — as well as institutions such as the State Bank of India, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Habib Bank, ICICI Bank, Mizuho Financial Group and Wells Fargo. No further restrictions were placed on how the information could be distributed after it was shared.
There is no confirmed public evidence that the list was transmitted directly to Chinese government officials or CCP entities outside banking channels. However, given the Bank of China’s status as a state-owned institution under the ultimate control of the Chinese Communist Party, critics argue that senior CCP officials would have had the ability to access information held by the bank if they chose to do so. The absence of restrictions on further distribution has intensified those concerns.
Foreign interference context and potential risks
The episode has renewed questions in light of repeated CSIS warnings about Chinese foreign interference in Canadian democratic processes. Canadian intelligence assessments and the public inquiry into foreign interference have documented sustained efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to influence elections and political outcomes in Canada, including activities assessed as favouring candidates and interests aligned with the Liberal Party in certain instances.
Observers have asked whether providing personal details of Canadians who opposed Liberal government policies to an institution controlled by the CCP creates potential risks for those individuals. Reports have documented cases of transnational repression targeting people in Canada who are critical of the Chinese government, including harassment and intimidation linked to unofficial Chinese “police stations” that Canadian authorities have investigated and moved to shut down.
No public evidence has established that individuals named on the Freedom Convoy blacklist were subsequently targeted by Chinese authorities or CCP-linked actors as a result of the list’s distribution. Nonetheless, the combination of unrestricted sharing with a CCP-controlled bank, documented Chinese interference activities, and known patterns of transnational repression has led some to call for greater scrutiny of how such sensitive personal information was handled.
Later records show the information was also circulated more widely within Canada’s financial sector. Ontario securities regulators distributed the list to between 1,000 and 2,000 brokerages and other firms, again without restrictions on further sharing. The Federal Court of Appeal later ruled that the government’s use of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and that related financial regulations violated Charter protections.
No comprehensive public accounting has detailed what long-term consequences, if any, individuals named on the list faced after financial institutions received their information.
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