Report backs use of Emergencies Act
The Public Order Emergency Commission says the Liberal government met the “very high threshold” for invoking the Emergencies Act amid the weekslong “Freedom Convoy” protests last winter.
“I do not come to this conclusion easily,” Justice Paul Rouleau said in a brief statement after the historic report was tabled in Parliament.
The 2,000-page report called the “Freedom Convoy” a “singular moment in history” exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as online misinformation and disinformation.
He concluded that a series of policing failures and a “failure of federalism” led to protest that spun out of control and had a striking impact on Ottawa residents.
“It is regrettable that such a situation arose here, because in my view, it could have been avoided,” Rouleau wrote.
The highly anticipated document is the culmination of more than 300 hours of testimony and 9,000 documents entered into evidence during seven weeks of hearing last fall.
The inquiry heard from more than 100 witnesses, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several other cabinet members, senior bureaucrats, protest participants, police and City of Ottawa officials.
The examination was stipulated to take place after the place after invocation of the Emergencies Act, which replaced the War Measures Act in 1988.
Rouleau has found that Ontario’s reluctance to be fully engaged with the federal government and the City of Ottawa in talks to end the protests to be troubling.
The inquiry heard Ontario Premier Doug Ford and then-solicitor general Sylvia Jones were slow to respond to requests for help from the City of Ottawa and the federal government.
Rouleau has concluded that Ontario only got fully involved when protesters blocked the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., which is a major trade route with the United States.
Trudeau became the first prime minister to trigger the law on Feb. 14, allowing for temporary measures including regulation and prohibition of public assemblies, the designation of secure places, direction to banks to freeze assets and a ban on support for participants.
He did so in the face of protests staged in the streets around Parliament Hill and at several border crossing, which Trudeau’s government has always maintained hit the bar for being declared a public order emergency.
In his report, Rouleau said most of the emergency measures taken under the act were appropriate and reasonable, while describing others, such as the power to suspend vehicle insurance, as counterproductive.
Overall, Rouleau made 56 recommendations, with 27 directed at how to improve police operations, as well as several aimed at the future use of the act itself.