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https://twitter.com/user/status/1596158105070768128

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ber...-act-1.6663792

Staff in the Prime Minister's Office are suggesting the former Conservative interim leader, Candice Bergen, privately acknowledged concerns about engaging with self-styled Freedom Convoy protesters last winter while publicly urging the prime minister to listen to them — something Bergen denies.

A summary of interviews with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's senior aides was released by the public inquiry looking into the federal government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14.

The document said Trudeau's chief of staff, Katie Telford, asked whether Bergen could help and the two leaders discussed reaching out to protesters in a Feb. 3 phone call.

"Ms. Telford added that during the call, Ms. Bergen acknowledged that there were significant concerns about whom the federal government could engage with and setting a bad precedent," the summary said.

The conversation happened on Bergen's first day on the job, when she publicly challenged Trudeau's government in the House of Commons for not offering an "olive branch" to the protesters.

During question period she charged that the prime minister needed to come up with a plan to make protesters "feel they have been listened to." Instead, she told MPs, Trudeau was "threatening Canadians with more vaccine mandates."

For her part, Bergen said Thursday that she had a different recollection of that Feb. 3 call with Trudeau. She said the prime minister called to congratulate her on becoming leader, and that they discussed a number of things.

"I asked him if he would consider reaching out and extending an olive branch to the people who had come to Ottawa," Bergen wrote in an email. "He said he didn't want to set a precedent by speaking to protesters in that way."