Federal government met the threshold to invoke Emergencies Act: Rouleau
Rouleau #Rouleau
Commissioner Paul Rouleau said today the federal government met the “very high” threshold needed to invoke the Emergencies Act last winter, citing “a failure in policing and federalism.”
“Lawful protest descended into lawlessness, culminating in a national emergency,” he wrote in his highly-anticipated report, tabled Friday in the House of Commons.
“Invocation of the Emergencies Act is a drastic move, but it is not a dictatorial one.”
The document sheds new light on one of the most controversial decisions ever made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government. On Feb. 14, 2022, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to end the protests that had blocked downtown Ottawa’s streets for nearly a month.
The protesters were angry with the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccine requirements.
It was the first time the law had been triggered since it was created in 1988.
By invoking the act, the federal government gave law enforcement extraordinary powers to remove and arrest protesters, and gave itself the power to freeze the finances of those connected to the protests. The temporary emergency powers also gave authorities the ability to commandeer tow trucks to remove protesters’ vehicles from the streets of the capital.
The law defines a national emergency as a situation that “cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.” Further, a public order emergency can only be invoked when there is “a threat to the security of Canada” as defined by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act.
“In my view, there was credible and compelling information supporting a reasonable belief that the definition of a threat to the security of Canada was met,” Rouleau wrote in his executive summary, which runs to more than 200 pages.
“I have concluded that cabinet was reasonably concerned that the situation it was facing was worsening and at risk of becoming dangerous and unmanageable.”
The Ontario appeal court justice said he reached this conclusion with some reluctance.
“I do not come to this conclusion easily, as I do not consider the factual basis for it to be overwhelming,” he said in statements he gave after his report was made public.
“Reasonable and informed people could reach a different conclusion than the one I have arrived at.”
While Rouleau’s report largely exonerates Trudeau regarding his decision to invoke the Emergencies Act, the prime minister does not escape criticism.
For example, Rouleau said Trudeau’s reference on Jan. 27 to some protesters as a “fringe minority” likely inflamed the situation and hardened protesters’ resolve.
He also concluded that federal consultation with the provinces was “adequate” but “could, and likely should, have been better.”
Ontario government’s response was ‘troubling’
His report makes 56 recommendations to improve intelligence sharing, police response to wide-scale protests and the Emergencies Act itself.
Rouleau reserved some of his most blistering remarks for the Ontario government.
“I find the province of Ontario’s reluctance to become fully engaged in such efforts directed at resolving the situation in Ottawa troubling,” he said.
Rouleau said Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet were absent during a crisis in a city in their jurisdiction and skipped out on two “tripartite meetings” with federal and city representatives trying to collaborate on a plan.
“Given that the city and its police service were clearly overwhelmed, it was incumbent on the province to become visibly, publicly and wholeheartedly engaged from the outset,” wrote Rouleau.
Rouleau said claims by some witnesses that the Ontario government was trying to avoid political responsibility were hard for him to assess because Ford’s government did not participate fully in the inquiry.
The Public Order Emergency Commission summoned Ford and deputy premier Sylvia Jones to testify but they resisted by filing an application for a judicial review and seeking a stay of the summons.
A Federal Court judge subsequently ruled Ford and Jones did not have to testify because of the immunity afforded them by parliamentary privilege.
The commissioner said that moments of urgency require leaders of governments at all levels “to rise above politics and collaborate for the common good.”
“Unfortunately, in January and February of 2022, this did not always happen,” he wrote.
Sloly not solely to blame
The Ottawa Police Service also gets poor marks from the justice, who wrote that if city police had properly assessed the information and intelligence at their fingertips, it “would have told a different story.”
He said the city police response was marred by a lack of proper planning, intelligence failures and internal dysfunction.
While Rouleau takes aim at some of former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly’s leadership choices and decisions, he also said that it would be too easy to attribute all of the shortfalls and errors to him.
“As well, some errors on Chief Sloly’s part were unduly enlarged by others, to a degree that suggests scapegoating,” he wrote.
Rouleau praised the Windsor police, the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP and the City of Windsor for learning from the mistakes of the Ottawa police.
Rouleau says situation could have been avoided
During six weeks of testimony last fall, the Public Order Emergency Commission heard from more than 70 witnesses, including cabinet ministers and protesters.
Rouleau wrote that the “spark” for the early 2022 protests was more than two years of COVID-19 restrictions and the federal government’s decision to require that commercial truck drivers be vaccinated in order to enter Canada.
Growing distrust in government in certain segments of the population, coupled with government responses to COVID, “exacerbated” this pre-existing dynamic.
Rouleau said he accepts that COVID-19 had a profound impact on Canadians and they had a right to to lawfully protest what they saw as government overreach.
“I do not accept the organizers’ descriptions of the protest in Ottawa as lawful, calm peaceful or something resembling a celebration,” Rouleau wrote.
“The bigger picture reveals that the situation in Ottawa was unsafe and chaotic.”
He also dismissed the organizers’ claims that they were unaware of acts of harassment and intimidation directed at local residents.
Ultimately, Rouleau wrote, “it is regrettable that such a situation arose here, because in my view, it could have been avoided.”
The NDP’s Matthew Green thanked Rouleau for his report and for the commission’s work.
“It is clear that Justice Rouleau believes that the highest standards, the thresholds for the invocation of the act were met,” he said.
Green said that the report should serve as a warning to Canadians about what happens when there is a failure at “all levels of government, in policing and in societal cohesion.”
“This report is an indictment of the failures of the multiple levels of policing to coordinate a response to the growing unrest and the disruption, and ultimately, the harm caused to citizens across the country,” he said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is expected to answer questions later Friday.