(Toronto) Doug Ford on Wednesday morning defended his decision not to testify at the inquiry into the federal government’s use of the Emergency Measures Actsaying this investigation was not a provincial matter.
Posted at 1:24 p.m.
During question period in the Legislative Assembly, the Premier of Ontario explained that the Commission on the State of Emergency is “a federal inquiry into the decision of the federal government to use the federal law on emergency measures”. He added that “for Ontario, this is a policing issue, not a political issue.”
Mr Ford has explained his position as he challenges in court a subpoena to the Public Inquiry into the State of Emergency, chaired by Judge Paul Rouleau. The commission is examining the federal government’s use of the Emergency Measures Act to end the “freedom convoy” protests in Ottawa and Windsor, Ontario last winter.
The commission served Mr. Ford and then Solicitor General Sylvia Jones with a subpoena on Monday. The next day, lawyers for Mr. Ford and Mr.me Jones filed an application for judicial review in Federal Court to have the subpoena quashed. They invoke the parliamentary privilege of members.
Mr. Ford had not yet commented since the formal subpoena: On Tuesday, as the Legislative Assembly resumed after six weeks of recess, the Prime Minister was absent for Question Period.
The Prime Minister pleaded that his government delegated two senior officials to the inquiry and provided 800 pages of Cabinet documents on the matter. He did not answer numerous other questions from the official opposition, deferring to government House leader Paul Calandra, who echoed the prime minister’s arguments.
Appearance on November 10?
The Rouleau commission wants Mr. Ford and Mr.me Jones testified Nov. 10, according to court documents. Their lawyers asked the Federal Court to have their motion heard on 1er november.
Last week, Mr Ford told reporters he had not been asked to give evidence.
However, the commission maintains that it has been trying since mid-September to meet with Mr. Ford, before the public hearings. Those requests have been repeatedly denied by provincial lawyers, emails filed in Federal Court show.
Ottawa’s outgoing mayor, Jim Watson, told the inquest he had asked the Ford government to attend a meeting with the city and the federal government to determine how to end the occupation of the center -capital city. Mr. Watson told the commission that the provincial government’s absence from the meeting had delayed the end of the occupation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already been met by commission prosecutors and is expected to testify at the public hearings. In a call between Mr. Trudeau and Mayor Watson in early February, the Prime Minister is heard to say that Mr. Ford’s absence was due to political reasons.
The commission wants to ask Mr. Ford and Mr.me Jones why they didn’t show up for this meeting. She also wants to know what role they both played in trying to resolve the occupation in Ottawa and the protests that halted inbound traffic for nearly a week at the country’s busiest border crossing in Windsor, across the street. from Detroit.