Ontario Premier Doug Ford and former Solicitor General Sylvia Jones will not have to testify at the Emergency Commission, the Federal Court has ruled. Commissioner Paul Rouleau had subpoenaed the Prime Minister and the one who is now Minister of Health on November 10.
” [Ces invitations à témoigner] cannot be enforced as long as the Prime Minister and Minister continue to oppose them on the basis of parliamentary privilege,” wrote Federal Court Justice Simon Fothergill.
His 30-page decision released on Monday clarifies that the federal public inquiry had the right to subpoena Mr. Ford and Ms. Jones, thereby dismissing the Ontario leader’s claim that such proceedings were “invalid” and out of place. its jurisdiction.
However, he sided with other arguments of the Prime Minister: parliamentary privilege can be invoked by the province to refuse to testify. This remains true as long as the Legislative Assembly of Ontario sits at Queen’s Park.
In a press conference Monday morning, Doug Ford, who was reading prepared answers when asked about the work of the Rouleau commission, reiterated that it was an issue of federal jurisdiction. In court, lawyers for the Ontario government argued that the testimony would cause “irreparable harm” to the two politicians. According to the lawyers, it was in the public interest that parliamentary privilege be protected.
The Rouleau commission begins its fourth week of testimony on Monday. After hearing from Ottawa politicians and police officers, Ontario provincial police officers and Freedom Convoy organizers, work this week is focusing on blockades at various border crossings across the country. Two senior provincial officials from Ontario are scheduled to testify to explain their government’s views on this crisis.
Prime Minister Doug Ford also refused to come and explain himself to a parliamentary committee of the federal Parliament, in Ottawa, which is investigating the events in parallel.
Ford absent
In the opinion of the former mayor of Ottawa and representatives of businesses and residents of its downtown area, Premier Ford was not sufficiently involved in the resolution of the major motorized demonstration of opponents of the sanitary measures. Turned into a three-week occupation of Ontario’s second-largest city last winter, Freedom Convoy was finally dislodged after federal emergency measures were invoked in February.
The Rouleau Commission hearings revealed major conflicts within the jurisdictional police forces, namely the Ottawa Police Service (OPS), as well as between this municipal police force and the Ottawa Provincial Police. Ontario (OPP). The provincial agents were responsible for collecting intelligence on the convoy and providing liaison officers to negotiate with the demonstrators. These two missions experienced major failures and were a source of disputes within the police.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police boss Brenda Lucki went so far as to write in a text message that the federal government had lost faith in Ottawa’s policing capabilities.