(OTTAWA) Two days before the Emergencies Act was invoked last February to quell anti-government protests, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned ministers that international partners feared Canada would not be able to control the situation.
Posted yesterday at 10:22 p.m.
The warning is contained in heavily redacted minutes of three Incident Response Group meetings and a wider cabinet meeting. These documents were made public by the Federal Court as part of the challenge to the use of the emergency law.
One of the documents shows that the weekend before invoking the law, February 14, the Trudeau government was assessing the consequences of invoking the emergency law, while considering other tools to deal with protests in Ottawa and on key routes, including the Windsor International Bridge.
Mr. Trudeau’s comments on February 12 came the day after his conversation with US President Joe Biden. According to the White House, Mr. Biden expressed concern about the impact of blockages at border crossings, including the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., on American businesses and workers.
“The Prime Minister has promised to act quickly to enforce the law and the President has thanked him for the actions he and other Canadian officials are taking,” the White House said Feb. 11.
At the time, Trudeau was speaking to a number of world leaders about bolstering Russian military forces near the border with Ukraine. During the first 12 days of February, he met with leaders from the European Union, Norway, Poland, Japan, Germany and Ukraine.
PMO records of these meetings do not mention the ongoing protests. However, documents showed that it was a priority for the cabinet. The weekend before invoking the Emergencies Act, the government was busy weighing the consequences of using the legislation while weighing other tools.
Possibility of negotiations
On Saturday, February 12, protesters were using social media to coordinate, starting protests that were slow to get going. Protesters involved children in their actions by leading them to blockades to impede police activity and engaging schools in walkouts, the documents show.
The minutes of one such meeting show that cabinet and senior government officials, the military and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), were informed of the possibility of a negotiation with the organizers of the demonstration, and even of a potential “breakthrough” for the end of the occupation in Ottawa.
But other documents also warn ministers that protesters in the capital were becoming increasingly hostile to the police and increasingly bold.
At the border crossing in Windsor, Ontario, an attempt by the provincial government to negotiate with protesters failed, prompting police to intervene to dismantle roadblocks.
Ottawa police released a statement Feb. 12 saying there were more than 4,000 people in the downtown core and that there had been “aggressive and unlawful behavior.” The Ottawa Police Service, Ontario Provincial Police and RCMP then established an enhanced integrated command center to ensure coordination.
Behind the scenes, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told the Federal Incident Group that it was difficult to work with other police forces, citing communication issues as well as with the police chief of Ottawa, Peter Sloly, who resigned the following week.
Meanwhile, law enforcement began responding to the Ambassador Bridge on Saturday after an attempt by the Ontario government to negotiate with protesters failed, the documents say, but that attempt stalled. when the number of demonstrators exceeded 500 people.
Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino told his colleagues that two separate movements appeared to be involved: a “relatively harmless and happy one” with “a strong relationship with religious communities”, and a more disturbing group of “extremists harder trying to undermine government institutions and law enforcement”.
Mr. Mendicino also noted that there were reports of former members of the military advising and instructing the leaders of the blockade, according to the documents.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra was working to secure tow trucks and drivers. The federal government said tow companies were unwilling to move the big trucks choking the streets of downtown Ottawa, and invoking the Emergencies Act gave police the power to compel them to help.
Agreement with the city
It was on Sunday that federal officials were informed that there was “potential for a breakthrough in Ottawa”.
According to Freedom Convoy lawyer Keith Wilson, the breakthrough was an agreement that had been worked out in order to negotiate with city officials. Tamara Lich, one of the leaders of the protest, and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson exchanged letters on Feb. 12, discussing an arrangement that would see truckers move their vehicles outside residential areas.
“Many Ottawa citizens and businesses have encouraged us, but we are also disturbing others. It was never our intention,” Ms.me Lich to Mayor Watson.
The group has printed leaflets explaining that it plans to reposition the trucks from Monday, “so that we don’t give the Prime Minister the excuse he desperately wants to use force and seize our trucks”.
On Sunday evening February 13, Pat King, a prominent protester, said on social media that there was no deal and suggested counter-protesters were spreading false information. He asked the demonstrators not to move.
Some vehicles began moving on Feb. 14, Wilson said, clearing two city blocks.
He said several misunderstandings in the “chaotic environment” slowed what was already likely to be a multi-day effort to move truckers on Wellington Street and Sir John A Macdonald Drive.
“We thought we had communication issues,” attorney Keith Wilson said. “Oh my God, the police have always had terrible communications. So we’re going to move the trucks, and then the police won’t let us move. »
That afternoon, Mr. Trudeau announced the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act.
On February 19, after days of police warnings to protesters to leave, an operation involving hundreds of officers began evacuating vehicles and people from downtown Ottawa.