No, Justin Trudeau is not to blame for brandishing the Emergency Measures Act to put an end to the “freedom convoy”. But the entire political class, police forces and society in general emerge with a black eye from this dark episode in Canadian history.
A sad example of “the failure of federalism”, writes the judge Paul Rouleau, in his report tabled Friday. The image is not too strong.
Federalism must enable Canada to flourish by balancing the preservation of national unity with respect for regional diversity. But for it to work, everyone has to do their part. With the “freedom convoy”, we had the opposite.
In his report of some 2300 pages, an exemplary work produced in record time, Judge Rouleau reveals the broken gears of a mechanism where everything was going from bad to worse, for lack of collaboration.
From the outset, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) ignored intelligence provided by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Parliamentary Protective Service warning of a prolonged occupation of the capital by hundreds of vehicles.
The Ottawa-Gatineau Hotel Association had also warned him that participants in the convoy wanted to reserve rooms for 30 to 90 days.
What did the police department do? Instead of making a contingency plan, the response manager said he was praying that it “will be very cold” and that the protesters would leave as soon as possible. In other words, “he hoped for the best, without foreseeing the worst”, summarizes Judge Rouleau.
The worst has happened.
In the field, the SPO teams did not get along with each other. For example, police officers carried out an operation that thwarted the agreement that the police liaison team had negotiated for the removal of cans of gasoline, thus undermining its bond of trust with the demonstrators. No one seemed to understand the very useful role this team could play in defusing the situation. A lesson to remember.
The OPS, the Mayor of Ottawa and the Ottawa Police Services Board were also not on the same page. When the situation turned sour, the Commission should have acted. It was his role. But she gave up on police chief Peter Sloly’s rebuffs.
It’s too bad, because the intervention to unblock the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor proved that by pooling everyone’s efforts, we could obtain quick results. In Quebec, the clear message sent by all the politicians also made it possible to prevent truckers from encrusting themselves.
But in Ontario, Doug Ford’s government preferred to let the situation deteriorate. He was only too happy to let the odious fall on Justin Trudeau who had limited powers to intervene, even if the protesters were at the gates of parliament.
The province had the power and the duty to act. But Doug Ford did not want to alienate his right-wing supporters on the eve of the election. His attitude was shameful. And cowardly, because he refused to testify before the Rouleau commission.
Justin Trudeau is not without blame, however. He, too, found something to his advantage when he saw the Conservatives tear each other apart because of the convoy, which also led to the ejection of leader Erin O’Toole.
The Prime Minister galvanized the protesters by describing them as a “small marginal minority” who do not represent “the views of Canadians”, for which he half-apologized on Friday.
In reality, some truckers who lost their livelihood because of the vaccination obligation at the border wanted to demonstrate against the health rules, which was legitimate. We must never forget that freedom of expression is one of our most precious values.
But it is true that other participants were not altar boys. They outright wanted to overthrow the government, talked about a “Nuremberg 2.0 trial”, issued death threats. It is unfortunate that new Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre supported the convoy, despite the volatile and dangerous situation.
In the end, it is clear that if everyone had done their job properly, we would never have had to pull the club out of the Emergency Measures Act. It is clear that in the future, we need more unity among police forces, as highlighted by several recommendations of the Rouleau report.
Collectively, we would also benefit from talking to each other better, instead of maintaining positions at loggerheads – fueled by misinformation from social and traditional media, underlines the judge – which risk leading to other demonstrations in the future.
We are 39 million, we have to talk to each other.