Emergencies Act: Leblanc Provides Update on Government’s Response to Public Inquiry Report

Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc speaks to reporters during the Liberal Cabinet retreat in Charlottetown, P.E.I., on Aug. 22, 2023. Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press

Federal Minister Dominic Leblanc sent a letter to the prime minister to provide an update on the government’s response to the Emergencies Act public inquiry report, saying a key objective of the response is to “maintain public trust.”

“Our key objective in preparing the Government’s Response to the Commission’s Final Report is to maintain public trust and confidence in the ability of police and all orders of government to work together to keep Canadians and our communities safe and secure,” says the Aug. 31 letter.

Mr. Leblanc, the minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, said in the letter that the 2022 convoy protests posed a “new kind” of security threat.

“These blockades descended into unlawful gatherings and disrupted critical infrastructure, key supply chains and our economy. Residents of affected communities were also subjected to prolonged harassment and intimidation,” he wrote.

The government declared a public order emergency in February 2022 to deal with the convoy protest in Ottawa and border blockades in some other parts of the country demanding the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.

As required by law, a public inquiry examining the circumstances of the invocation of the Emergencies Act was held in the fall of 2022. In his report filed in February 2023, Commissioner Paul Rouleau said the government had met the “very high threshold for invocation” of the act.

The Rouleau report provided 56 recommendations to the government. Those include the need to improve intelligence sharing between security agencies or making changes to the act itself to clarify the threats and threshold to invoke it.

Mr. Leblanc told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his letter that the RCMP has acted on the report’s recommendation to improve information sharing.

Regarding reforming the Emergencies Act, Mr. Leblanc says the government is giving it “thoughtful consideration.”

Commissioner Rouleau had also addressed issues such as “misinformation” and “disinformation,” which the government has blamed for the protest movement.

Mr. Leblanc’s letter lists initiatives taken by the government on the matter, saying the government has made it a priority to “address the impacts of disinformation on Canadian society.” It mentions the recent establishment of the Protecting Democracy Unit with the Privy Council Office to “coordinate, develop, and implement government-wide measures designed to combat disinformation.”

Mr. Trudeau announced $10 million in funding for the group last March.

Mr. Leblanc, who kept his responsibility as minister of intergovernmental affairs and was given the Public Safety portfolio in the July cabinet shuffle, has to present the full government response by February 2024.

Marco Mendicino, who was in charge of Public Safety during the public order emergency, was removed entirely from cabinet.

Civil liberties groups have taken the government to court over its use of the Emergencies Act, saying the events didn’t meet the threshold to invoke according to the act’s definition.

The government has refused to lift solicitor-client privilege to provide the legal advice it received to justify invoking the act.

Senior police officials who testified at the Public Order Emergency Commission last fall said that invoking the act was not necessary to clear the protesters in Ottawa.

The Liberal government has insisted that it was necessary to compel towing companies to remove the heavy trucks, but the evidence presented demonstrated the power was not used.