Canada's use of emergency powers during 'Freedom Convoy' met threshold, commissioner says
By Anna Mehler Paperny
TORONTO (Reuters) -Canada's government met the threshold for invoking emergency powers when it did so in early 2022 to deal with border blockades and an occupation that brought parts of the capital to a standstill in opposition to vaccine mandates but the necessity of such emergency powers could have been avoided, the commissioner of an independent inquiry said on Friday.
For weeks last January and early February, the "Freedom Convoy" demonstrations against a wide range of government measures including COVID-19 vaccine mandates shut down Ottawa and blocked some border crossings, leading the federal government to invoke emergency powers to end the protests.
A commission mandated by law to review the act's invocation concluded the government met the very high threshold for invocation, commissioner and Justice Paul Rouleau wrote in his report, tabled in Canada's parliament Friday.
But, he added, he made that conclusion "with reluctance."
Rouleau told reporters the situation did not have to come to a point where these emergency powers were needed.
Invoking the Emergencies Act gave police additional power to remove and arrest protesters, allowed the government to freeze the assets of those suspected of funding the blockades and allowed for the commandeering of tow trucks.
"The response to the Freedom Convoy involved a series of policing failures," Rouleau said, adding that better preparation "could have avoided the necessity of invoking the Emergencies Act."
In his report he also criticized a "failure of federalism" because different levels of government did not adequately cooperate.
Ottawa police, in particular, came under fire for not acting more swiftly to disband protesters. Police said they had initially expected protesters to leave after the first weekend of protests.
While these emergency measures "were, for the most part, appropriate and effective ... in a number of respects these measures were deficient," Rouleau told reporters.
Among other things, he said, the asset freezing lacked discretion and a clear way for individuals to have their assets unfrozen.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday his government would issue a comprehensive public response to the report's recommendations within a year.
"Our job as a government is always to keep people safe and invoking the Emergencies Act was the necessary thing to do to remove the threat and to protect people," Trudeau told reporters, adding that invoking it was a measure of last resort.
"It was unfortunate. It was undesirable. We didn't want to do it."
The Emergencies Act "might be necessary in rare instances but it was not justified last winter and it is a dangerous power for any current or future government," Canadian Civil Liberties Association Executive Director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv told reporters Friday.
This was the first time the Emergencies Act had been used since it was created in its current form in the 1980s. The commission heard from elected officials, police, protesters and Ottawa residents who said they felt harassed by convoy participants.
(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Deepa Babington and Josie Kao)
