Trudeau Pushes Back on Challenge to Use of Emergencies Act After Position of Police Forces Revealed

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 6, 2022. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pushed back Wednesday on recent challenges to the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act in February after both the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) and Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said they could have cleared Freedom Convoy protesters without emergency powers, and it was revealed that RCMP commissioner had said not all options had been exhausted hours before the act was used.

Trudeau said during question period in the House of Commons on Oct. 26 that he is “eager” to testify before the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC), which is investigating if the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act was justified.

“[The Emergencies Act] was both necessary and done responsibly,” Trudeau said.

“That is why we launched a public inquiry to shed light on all the reasons why it was invoked, so that Canadians can learn, impartially and in a nonpartisan fashion, why it was the right thing to do, why it was done in a limited and proportional fashion, and that it worked to put an end to the truckers’ occupation that was illegal.”

OPS interim chief Steve Bell told the POEC on Oct. 25 that police could have cleared away Ottawa Freedom protesters without the additional powers granted by the Emergencies Act.

“In the absence of the invocation of the Emergencies Act, the OPS, the OPP, the RCMP—as part of unified command—were going to clear the protests,” Bell said.

The federal government invoked the Emergencies Act during the afternoon of Feb. 14. Just hours prior, RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki informed the Liberal cabinet that they had not yet exhausted “all available tools that are already available through the existing legislation.”

Former OPP senior officer Carson Pardy recently told the POEC that the Emergencies Act was helpful, but not necessary.

“We had some help with [the provincial declaration of emergency] and the Emergencies Act, but in my humble opinion, we would have reached the same solution with the plan that we had without either of those pieces of legislation,” Pardy said on Oct. 21.

‘Necessary’

Responding to questions about Lucki’s Feb. 14 email saying the Emergencies Act wasn’t needed, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said it doesn’t change her previous testimony before a parliamentary committee when she said the emergency powers were necessary to end the Freedom Convoy protests.

“[Lucki] said very clearly that the Emergencies Act was needed to resolve the situation on the ground,” Mendicino told reporters on Parliament Hill on Oct. 25.

Lucki told the House of Commons public safety committee in February that the Emergencies Act allowed the RCMP to bar additional protesters from joining the Freedom Convoy in downtown Ottawa, which she said they couldn’t have done under ordinary laws.

“Operationally, it was all about reducing that footprint in Ottawa,” she told the committee on Feb. 25, adding that the RCMP used the Emergencies Act “as a big deterrent to people against coming into the area.”

“We did use the measures that were put in the Emergencies Act, along with other authorities that we had,” she said.

Mendicino also told reporters on Oct. 25 that the federal government “listened carefully to the array [of] advice that we were getting at the time.”

“We consulted with various partners, provincially, territorially, etc.,” he said. “But we took the decision because it was necessary.”