Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference on the airline industry in Montreal, Quebec on July 15, 2021. (Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP via Getty Images)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that “international partners” had expressed concern about the Freedom Convoy protests in the lead-up to the federal government’s invoking of the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14.
“Quite frankly, there were concerns expressed by international partners as well, seeing the illegal occupations of border crossings, of sites across the country,” Trudeau told reporters in Toronto on Nov. 4.
Two days before invoking the emergency powers, Trudeau told his ministers that a “number of international partners” had expressed concerns with the government’s ability to “handle” the protests, according to cabinet meeting minutes.
Trudeau also said Friday that there “were a lot of Canadians worried” about the Freedom Convoy’s impact “on Canada’s reputation as a country of peace, order, and good government.”
“So many things were causing instability and difficulties for Canadians,” Trudeau said, adding there were “security concerns for people across the country” and “direct impacts on residents in many parts of the country.”
“These are things that Canadians remember from the Convoy occupations and this is part of why this inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act, which is something that we invoked, is so important.”
The Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) is currently examining the basis on which the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act in February to evaluate if the act’s use was justified.
Testimony
Trudeau and several members of his cabinet, including Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Justice Minister David Lametti, are set to testify before the commission near the end of its public hearings phase.
So far, Ottawa residents, city councillors, various police officials, and convoy organizers have testified. RCMP officials, including commissioner Brenda Lucki, are set to testify soon.
Trudeau told reporters Friday that he’s “looking forward” to testifying at the inquiry.
“It’s really important for Canadians to understand what was going on in that moment and why it was the right thing to do, to invoke the Emergencies Act in a responsible, time-limited, targeted way.”
Both the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) commissioner and Ottawa Police Service (OPS) interim chief have testified so far that they still had legal tools at their disposal to clear protesters from downtown Ottawa when the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act.
OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique told the commission on Oct. 27 that he “agreed” with sentiment expressed by Lucki in an email dated Feb. 14 where she said police had “not yet exhausted tools that are already available through the existing legislation.”
Several days before Carrique testified, OPS interim chief Steve Bell said police “were going to clear the protests” even without the Emergencies Act.
Now-retired OPP senior officer Carson Pardy also told the POEC on Oct. 21 that both the provincial declaration of emergency and the Emergencies Act provided “some help” to police, but wasn’t necessary to end the protests.
“In my humble opinion, we would have reached the same solution with the plan that we had without either of those pieces of legislation,” he said.
Noé Chartier contributed to this report.
