The provinces, including Quebec, had warned the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, not to apply the Emergency Measures Act on their territory in order to overcome the pseudo-convoy of freedom, whose activities are now concentrated in Ottawa and Coutts, Alberta. Continuing his momentum, Mr. Trudeau made another blunder by ignoring their legitimate protests.
Even if he does not intend to deploy military forces against the Canadian population, which would be the height of absurdity, Mr. Trudeau wishes to confer special powers on the police officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) . They will be able to enforce municipal by-laws and provincial laws, and dismantle barricades. The RCMP failed in gathering criminal intelligence and in developing a preventive plan to prevent protesters from encroaching, in Coutts, Windsor and Ottawa. The Ottawa police failed in allowing the truckers to put down roots in front of the parliament. Now the police forces are rewarded with additional powers to thank them for their inaction.
If the RCMP and Ottawa Police had shown greater insight at the start of the movement, there would not have been a “national crisis” on the front page of the media. In addition, the RCMP succeeded in dislodging the truckers from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, without exceptional powers, it should be noted. Recourse to the Emergency Measures Act therefore seems excessive, except to facilitate the seizure of the financial assets of the organizers of the convoy.
“The world is watching us,” Prime Minister Trudeau said Monday. This is the main justification behind this tour de force. After ridiculing all the protesters in the early days of the demonstrations, Mr. Trudeau retreated into a wait-and-see attitude, contenting himself with slandering the conservatives for their regrettable flirtation with anti-health populism. The crisis worsened as truckers parked permanently on Wellington Street. The federal government, the City of Ottawa and the various police forces passed the buck on responsibility for the intervention. Until he declared a state of emergency, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was invisible…
And that is how incompetence, partisanship and police recklessness lead to recourse to the Emergencies Act. When the last barricades fall, we will have to examine the political and police strategies that have led us into this unreal slump, unworthy of a healthy democracy.