(Ottawa) The Ottawa protest was deemed by police to be a threat to national security a week before the Emergency Measures Act be invoked by the Trudeau government.
Posted at 1:08 p.m.
The demonstration began on January 28. Over the days, hundreds of truckers from across the country parked their trucks in the heart of downtown Ottawa, on Wellington Street across from Parliament and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office, and in the surrounding streets.
“We identified her as a national security threat through our provincial intelligence office on or around February 7,” OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique said Thursday.
He did not give any explanation on the elements that led the police force to come to this conclusion.
Mr. Carrique and Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell were testifying to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, which is trying to shed light on the federal government’s response to these events.
The government invoked for the first time the Emergency Measures Act on February 14, to end the Ottawa protest as well as blockades at border crossings in Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba. There followed a vast police operation in the federal capital which was spread over three days to dislodge the demonstrators.
The demonstration ended on February 20, and three days later the government canceled the use of the law even before the end of the parliamentary debate on the need to use it.
More details to come.