Trudeau's 'Freedom Convoy' shutdown was justified, inquiry rules
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was justified in invoking never-before-used emergency powers to quell a “Freedom Convoy” occupation of downtown Ottawa and disruptive blockades of Canada-U.S. border crossings, an inquiry report released Friday concludes.
“The very high threshold for invocation was met,” Justice Paul Rouleau writes in the findings of the Public Order Emergency Commission.
Rouleau’s report was tabled in the House of Commons just over a year after the government invoked the Emergencies Act for 10 days, giving law enforcement new tools to quell sustained protests that had made life miserable in neighborhoods near Parliament Hill and cost millions a day in cross-border trade.
The commissioner highlighted lapses in policing, intelligence and federalism, as well as “the failure to anticipate such a moment and to properly manage the legitimate protests that emerged, especially the protest in Ottawa.”
Trudeau said his government didn’t want to invoke the Emergencies Act a year ago, but the longer the protests dragged on, concerns about violence, potentially spurred by ideologically motivated violent extremism, grew.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/17/freedom-convoy-trudeau-report-00083469
America's freedom convoy petered out in 2022
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