(Ottawa) Police forces have “learned a lot” from the “freedom convoy” version 2022, and should be able to better manage the arrival of a possible new convoy, said Justin Trudeau.
“I expect that the tools available to police forces will be put in place to ensure that we do not have a repeat of the occupation which has hurt so many people over the past year,” said Justin Trudeau at a press conference in Vancouver on Friday.
“I think we learned a lot, and I think the police forces learned a lot, from what happened last February,” he also said in response to a question from a journalist who also asked him if an appeal to the Emergency Measures Act was ruled out immediately.
One of the organizers of the “freedom convoy” which paralyzed the streets of the city center last winter, James Bauder, assured Friday on his Facebook page that “yes, we are preparing a ‘freedom convoy’ 2023 at national scale “.
According to the plan published on social networks by this co-founder of the organization Canada Unity, vehicles from the west and the east of the country would converge in Ottawa on February 17, and would remain installed in the capital until February 20. .
The Trudeau government invoked on February 14, 2022 the Emergency Measures Act with the goal of freeing downtown Ottawa from the trucks that had occupied it for about three weeks. It was in effect for 10 days before being revoked.
Its invocation is the subject of a study by the Commission on the state of emergency, which must determine whether it was justified. Judge Paul Rouleau, who is presiding over the work, must submit his report to Parliament by February 20 – in a context, therefore, where a new convoy would be on its way to Ottawa.