“Alternative media” a “top concern”: Public Safety Deputy Minister
“Alternative media” a “top concern”: Public Safety Deputy Minister
Public Safety Canada Deputy Minister Tricia Geddes also lauded the government’s use of the Emergencies Act against “extremists.”
Apr 23, 2026
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Public Safety Canada Deputy Minister Tricia Geddes recently told an international audience that alternative media was a top concern for the Liberal government and lauded the use of the Emergencies Act to quash peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters.
Geddes was in Stockholm, Sweden, to give a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ conference called Threats and Responses.
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During the panel discussion, she also lauded the utility of the Emergencies Act, and how it has helped her government deal with “extremists”, but that there is “low trust in Canada in many of our government institutions and that’s something we need to build foundationally.”
“At the federal level, Canada’s priorities include concern with our relative vulnerability to information manipulation and polarizing narratives, and the growing skepticism of younger Canadians towards democracy, who shape their world online through alternative media,” she said on Tuesday.
“Foreign adversaries are seeking to leverage this vulnerability to their advantage. Protecting democratic institutions and the public by strengthening intelligence collection and information sharing across all levels of government.”
When asked what legal framework Ottawa was equipped with on the issue, Geddes said that the Carney government was “really struggling with the speed of moving legislative reform,” adding that they’ve been trying for eight years, and through multiple Parliaments, to get new online regulations passed.
“We’ve suffered through prorogations and changes in governments and haven’t been able to get across the finish line. So that’s a bit frustrating and challenging for us,” she said. “The technology and privacy debate is what is sort of the most acutely difficult legislative conversation in Canada.”
However, it was under former prime minister Justin Trudeau that Parliament was prorogued, which lasted for several months.
Geddes then went on to note how the Liberals have found “a lot of old legislation is proving to be extremely useful right now,” citing her government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act as a highly effective tool.
According to the deputy minister, while the Emergencies Act was created “many decades ago for different circumstances,” it has still proved to “give us the types of authorities that we need in extremists. So that’s helpful.”
The Emergencies Act was invoked for the first time during the 2022 Convoy protest against government mandates regarding the COVID-19 pandemic to quash peaceful protestors from demonstrating in Ottawa.
What Geddes failed to mention is that at the beginning of the year, the Federal Court of Appeals upheld a January 2024 Federal Court decision that the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act was “unreasonable.”
Justice Richard Mosley’s earlier ruling had declared the Act’s economic and emergency measures violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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Jan 16
On March 27, the final day of the Supreme Court’s deadline for appeal, the federal government then filed an appeal challenging the federal court’s landmark ruling, reopening litigation on its use of the Emergencies Act.
Geddes added that it has been “very difficult to get Canadians to understand the imminence of the terrorism threat in Canada,” which has made it difficult for the government to make any reforms, but now the population wants to meet the moment.
“We try to take advantage of the way Canadians have decided that there is a need to stand up for themselves at this moment and that is an area where we can tap into,” she said.