February 17, 2023
Updated 2 hours ago
Image source, Getty Images
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Protests had deadlocked Ottawa and blocked key border crossings for weeks
Canada’s government has hit the “high” threshold when it invoked never-used emergency powers to end last February’s trucker protests, an investigation has found.
Judge Paul Rouleau, who led the inquiry into the application of the 1988 Emergency Act, called the decision a “drastic step” but not “dictatorial”.
The law gives the government additional powers in times of crisis.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used it on February 14, 2022 – three weeks after the protests began.
“Lawful protest led to lawlessness and culminated in a national emergency,” Rouleau wrote in his Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) report presented in the House of Commons on Friday.
Mr Rouleau said he did not come to the conclusion lightly but that the federal government’s actions were “reasonable” and “effective”.
Although the report states that the use of emergency powers was necessary, it also suggests that Prime Minister Trudeau fueled the situation with comments describing the movement as a “fringe minority”, which hardened protesters’ resolve.
At a news conference on Friday afternoon, Prime Minister Trudeau said his government would take the report’s recommendations seriously and would respond within the next year after the analysis.
He also echoed criticism of his comments on the protests, saying he wished he had “worded it differently”.
“Convoy of Freedom”
The protest against the government’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate, known as the “Freedom Convoy”, had blocked Canada’s state capital for three weeks and attracted international attention.
The 1988 law Mr. Trudeau relied on allowed the government, among other things, to impose bans on gatherings in some areas and ban travel to protest zones, including foreigners.
It also requires that a formal investigation be conducted after the offense has been asserted.
The POEC heard from over 70 witnesses and 50 experts late last year. The hearings were chaired by Judge Paul Rouleau of the Ontario Court of Appeals.
Mr Trudeau testified before the Commission on the last day of the hearing.
Defending his government’s use of the law, he said law enforcement couldn’t address the Ottawa protest and he was concerned about what would happen if the government didn’t end the protest.
The law allowed the federal government to remove and arrest protesters and freeze financial assets of those involved in the protests.
In his testimony, Mr. Trudeau said he would not have used the powers if he felt there was another option.
“If I had been satisfied that other government regulations or any other law in Canada was sufficient to deal with this emergency, we would not have reached the threshold” to invoke the law, he said.
The 2,000-page report also includes 56 recommendations for improving information sharing, police response to large-scale protests, and the emergency law itself.
The emergency law was enacted in 1988 and has never been used before. The law was placed under the public welfare category in the early days of the pandemic, but was ultimately ruled unnecessary.
A precursor to the law, known as the War Measures Act, was used three times in Canadian history: during World War I, World War II, and, most controversially, by Pierre Trudeau – Justin Trudeau’s father – during the October Crisis.