Trudeau’s inquiry gamble pays off
Prime minister will likely face no sanction
The Public Order Emergency Commission concluded its hearings on Friday in dramatic fashion, with examination and cross examination of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Whether by accident or by design, he had the final day all to himself, and it is likely what will remain freshest in the mind of many after six gruelling weeks of hearings.
The prime minister took a gamble by agreeing to appear. Like Ontario Premier Doug Ford, he could have finagled out of appearing by claiming parliamentary privilege, but he chose not to do that. Based on what I saw at Library and Archives Canada, the venue for the hearings, Trudeau’s gamble paid off. He came across as calm and reassured, his body language was relaxed and confident, and he sat alone on the stand throughout the proceedings. After the breaks, while people slowly returned to the meeting room, Trudeau sat on the stand on his own, literally a few feet away from the rest of us, and was just taking in the scene like any average Canadian would — except that here was the most powerful person in the country.
Perhaps it was not a surprise that an adept communicator like Trudeau came through questioning by the Commission’s lawyer with flying colours. It helped that he was thrown one soft ball after the other, which he deftly proceeded to bat out of the park. It was clear the prime minister was superbly briefed in advance of this hearing, clearing up the debris left by the lacklustre performance of previous government witnesses.
Trudeau uncannily judged the tone necessary to respond to each question, by turns either passionate or statesmanlike as the situation required. In response to the Commission counsel’s final question before the morning break, he used the opportunity for the perfect set piece to make his case for the emergency, ending his speech earnestly, “I am absolutely, absolutely serene and confident that I made the right choice in agreeing with the invocation.” He simultaneously managed to combine both empathy and strength in this tone. He was the guy who got the job done, with a smile on his face.
You can be briefed only up to a certain point, but Trudeau held his own while being cross-examined by the numerous lawyers for all the interested parties. What’s more, on occasion, he even anticipated the use that his testimony would be put to by counsel, and pre-emptively reacted. For example, when queried by the Saskatchewan counsel, comparing the timeline for the Emergencies Act consultation in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and the much more compressed timeline during the consultation during the Freedom Convoy protests, Trudeau, after the questions had ended, proactively explained why the consultation was shorter in the latter than the former. Here was a prime minister thinking on his feet.
Two lessons emerged. First, those who dislike or don’t share either Trudeau’s politics or policies, and that often includes me, shouldn’t make the mistake that his privileged and sheltered upbringing, and the coterie of smart advisers surrounding him, imply that he’s an intellectual lightweight. If there were any doubt, he proved testifying before the commission that he’s nobody’s fool. Second, Trudeau proved once again that he’s the ultimate Teflon man, to which no sin or error sticks for very long. To his supporters, he no doubt came through as a ministering angel, and even his critics will have to concede that he made the best possible case for the government’s emergency — without actually saying anything terribly specific.
Here’s the rub. If the commission were about who gave the best presentation, Trudeau would be walking home with the Oscar — but it’s not. Ultimately, Commissioner Paul Rouleau will have to decide if the invocation of the Emergencies Act met the necessary legal threshold.
Like Hamlet without the Danish prince, he’ll have to make his determination without seeing the legal rationale that the government claims it had but couldn’t hand over due to “Cabinet confidentiality.”
The reality is, no matter what Rouleau says in his final report, Trudeau’s Liberals, with the support of his friends, Jagmeet Singh and the NDP, will safely be able to put the report on a shelf to gather dust, in the hopes that public interest in the issue will dissipate before the next election, not due until the fall of 2025. That’s a long time for the headlines to be captured by other issues.
Which brings us to the question of accountability and checks and balances, both areas where our Westminster system is exceedingly weak. A U.S. president, for example, can be investigated by an independent counsel and is subject to impeachment by Congress. In our system, in which the legislature and the executive are joined at the hip, there’s no real danger of a prime minister with a majority, or in this case a de facto majority, facing any real sanction.
The ultimate, and really only, sanction in the Westminster system is at the ballot box, and voters carry about many issues. In my judgment, Trudeau certainly hasn’t hurt his chances of being re-elected — yet again — by his impressive performance at the commission.
HE CAME ACROSS AS CALM AND REASSURED, HIS BODY LANGUAGE WAS RELAXED.