Trudeau Defends Use of Emergencies Act During ‘Freedom Convoy’ Protests
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended his decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in response to the “Freedom Convoy” trucker protests earlier in the year.
Trudeau appeared before the Public Order Emergency Commission on Friday to testify as part of a legal challenge against his Emergencies Act decision, CBC News reported. While lawyers arguing against the prime minister’s decision said that law enforcement had been formulating a plan to clear out protesters in downtown Ottawa, Trudeau asserted that the plan that they were pulling together “wasn’t a plan at all.”
“We kept hearing there was a plan,” Trudeau said during his testimony. “I would recommend people take a look at that actual plan, which wasn’t a plan at all…It was not even in the most generous characterizations a plan for how they were going to end the occupation.”
In prior hearings, it was claimed that the Ottawa Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were working together to create an operational plan to clear out protesters. Trudeau countered this narrative, stating that the planning document he heard about at the time was focused on using “liaison officers to shrink the footprint of the protest,” according to the CBC, with enforcement details “to be determined later.”
The aim of the Public Order Emergency Commission will be to determine whether or not law enforcement could have handled the protesters, and if the invocation by Trudeau was truly a last-resort measure. Trudeau previously appointed Ontario Justice Paul Rouleau to head the commission, and he is bound by law to submit a report on the matter to both chambers of the Canadian parliament by February 20, 2023.
The Emergencies Act was passed into law by parliament in 1988 and allows the Canadian government to take extraordinary measures in response to national emergencies that are beyond the scope of existing law to handle. Trudeau’s invocation of the law on February 14 was the first time it was invoked since it was passed.
It gave the Canadian government the ability to target the finances of the protesters, set up no-go zones in vital areas, and compel towing companies to clear away vehicles. Law enforcement was also empowered by the law with further resources.
The law was only in effect for a little over a week, with Trudeau officially revoking it on February 23, stating that the emergency powers were no longer needed.
“The situation is no longer an emergency; therefore, the federal government will be ending the use of the Emergencies Act,” Trudeau said at a press conference at the time. “We are confident that existing laws and bylaws are sufficient to keep people safe.”
Newsweek reached out to Trudeau’s office for comment.
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