Trudeau Says No Minister or Official Spoke Up Against Invoking Emergencies Act

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testifies at the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa, Nov. 25, 2022. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

No Liberal minister or federal official spoke out against the invocation of the Emergencies Act during two key meetings where it was discussed, hence creating a consensus for its use, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified at the Public Order Emergency Commission on Nov. 25.

“My expectation is always, if you have significant disagreements, this is the time to speak up. There was no voice saying ‘hold it, we don’t think you should do this, or I don’t think you should do this,’ which does happen from time to time in cabinet meetings and in IRGs,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau said even though there was consensus at those meetings, he didn’t need it to invoke the act. “Obviously it helped,” he said.

The prime minister was being asked about the discussions that took place at those two key meetings on Feb. 13, with the Incident Response Group (IRG) meeting occurring in the afternoon and the cabinet meeting in the evening.

The IRG is chaired by the prime minister and includes a broader cast of participants that includes relevant top federal officials.

Counsels at the commission have been trying in the last few weeks of public hearings to trace a timeline of the events to understand how and when the federal government came to the decision of invoking the Emergencies Act to clear cross-country protests and blockades last February.

With rules of cabinet confidence protecting the discussions at those meetings, and the legal advice provided by the attorney general covered by solicitor-client privilege, the commission is missing an important part of the picture to draw its conclusions.

Timeline of Decision

Some parties at the commission, such as the Province of Saskatchewan, have attempted to find out if Trudeau had made the decision to invoke the act before consulting the provinces and territories as required by law.

The call with the first ministers took place on the morning of Feb. 14, and the declaration of a public emergency was made at around 4:30pm later that day.

Trudeau said he made his final decision to invoke the act when he was presented with the memorandum of decision by the Clerk of the Privy Council at around 3:41pm.

“I was a long way down the road of realizing that it was probably the path we needed to take,” Trudeau said in reference to invoking the act. “But I did not make up my mind until the note from the clerk was in front of me.”

The prime minister said if the public service, through the Clerk, had not recommended the act be invoked, “It is possible that we wouldn’t be here today, and I would not have invoked it.”

Threshold

Like other ministers and federal officials testifying prior to Trudeau, he said the threshold to invoke the act had been met due to the “threat of serious violence” as defined under section 2c of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Act, despite CSIS itself saying the protests did not pose a threat to national security.

He said the definition under the CSIS Act to launch national security investigations applies differently when it comes to national emergencies.

“This definition within a declaration of public order emergency under the Emergencies Act is about the Governor in Council finding reasonable grounds that there are threats to the security of Canada.”

Trudeau was challenged on this interpretation by Ewa Krajewska, counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

“I would put to you that when invoking the Emergencies Act ... the level of thresholds of the security threat that must be met cannot be any lower than it is when CSIS is proposing to surveil one person, that the threshold is no different. Do you agree with that?” she said.

“Yes, I do,” answered Trudeau.