The commissioner of the public inquiry into the federal government’s invocation of emergency measures also had difficulty gaining access to certain documents, he said on the first day of hearings.
“Access to the relevant documents was difficult,” said Judge Paul Rouleau during his opening speech on Thursday.
Even if the government has made “considerable efforts” to publish the thousands of pages of documentation held by twelve ministries, their sharing at the Commission has been done in dribs and drabs. The last documents arrived no later than the end of last week, said the commissioner.
Judge Rouleau noted that many of these documents were redacted, a criticism also made by members of a parliamentary committee which examines emergency measures in parallel. Rarely, the State of Emergency Commission will have access to information produced for ministers usually marked by “cabinet secrecy”.
The public’s “right to know”
“This commission is preparing to find answers to the questions asked of it by Parliament: what led the federal government to declare an emergency, how it exercised the powers obtained, and whether its actions were appropriate” , summarized Judge Paul Rouleau, during the very first day of the public hearings of the Commission on the state of emergency.
The Commission is not a court, and cannot issue fines or impose prison sentences. If it were to determine that the emergency measures were not justified, the government would suffer only a political cost.
At least 65 witnesses will be heard by Judge Rouleau over the next month and a half. The list notably includes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and seven of his ministers. The hearings are open to the public and held in a conference room in the Library and Archives Canada building, located in the middle of the area of last winter’s protests.
The Commission prepared reports, presented Thursday, to explain the origins of the protest, the outline of the events that led to the emergency measures, the legal framework of the law, and what was presented by the government as justification for these measures.
The Emergencies Act provides for the holding of such a commission when a government uses its special powers, as happened on February 14th. The federal government used emergency measures to dislodge the three-week occupation of the streets of the capital, Ottawa, by a motorized convoy of opponents of sanitary measures.
These hearings are essential to “maintaining public trust and holding the government accountable,” he said. The public has the right to know what happened” when invoking emergency measures.
The provinces have their say
Lawyers from different groups who will be heard during the public inquiry delivered their opening speeches on Thursday. The first witnesses will be heard on Friday, starting with citizens of Ottawa exasperated by the constant din and horns.
Already, lawyers from the Prairie provinces have shown their colours. The representative of Saskatchewan said that the province was informed by Ottawa the same day of the invocation of emergency measures, when the province, like Quebec, did not want them on its territory. Alberta recalled that authorities were able to dislodge the border blockade at Coutts without the help of emergency measures.
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) prosecutor Christopher Diana added another layer of this by indicating that Ontario had “sufficient legal authority” to deal with protesters, even though provincial and federal laws on the emergency “gave useful tools” to the police.
One of the Freedom Convoy’s most prominent leaders, Tamara Lich, was in the Commission’s audience at its launch on Thursday. She told the media present that she intended to be present “all along” the hearings, to which she must appear. The woman who raised millions of dollars in donations for the convoy is awaiting trial on various criminal charges, including mischief, in connection with her participation in the protests.
Determining the motivations of the demonstrators is also part of the mandate of the commission, which must in particular examine the impact of misinformation and social media on their movement.
More details will follow.