The federal investigation which should shed light on the Trudeau government’s invocation of emergency measures to quell the “Freedom Convoy” was launched on Monday, on the deadline provided for by law. It will be public.
It is Judge Paul S. Rouleau who will preside over the work of the independent investigation, which has the official title “Commission on the State of Emergency”, announced the Prime Minister’s Office in a press release. Justice Rouleau has twenty years of judicial experience, having sat in the Superior Court and the Court of Appeal of Ontario, then in the courts of the Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
The Commission “will examine in particular the evolution of the convoy, the impacts of financing and misinformation, the economic consequences and the efforts of the police forces and other stakeholders before and after the declaration of the state of emergency”, specifies -your.
The Emergencies Act was invoked by the Trudeau government on February 14 with the aim of dislodging a few hundred trucks that were blocking downtown Ottawa in the hope of ending all sanitary measures. against COVID-19. This was the very first time a government had used these emergency measures since their creation in 1988.
According to the law, the government is required to investigate “the circumstances which gave rise to the declaration and the measures taken to deal with the crisis”, within 60 days of the end of the measures. The countdown ended on Monday, since the emergency measures applied until February 23. The self-proclaimed “Freedom Convoy” had already been completely dislodged by the police a few days earlier. It had been blocking several streets in the federal capital since the end of January.
The law does not specify what form this investigation should take, except that it must file its report within a year. The Bloc Québécois demanded that it be held in a transparent and public manner.
In addition to this investigation, a parliamentary committee was set up to study the use of emergency measures. Two of its co-presidents from the opposition have promised to make the process public, even if the law only provides for work “behind closed doors”.
The House of Commons endorsed the emergency measures with the support of New Democratic Party (NDP) MPs. The senate was still debating the issue when the measures ended.
Special powers were granted to the authorities during this period of ten days in February, such as those to requisition tow trucks to move vehicles or to freeze the bank accounts of demonstrators. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), as well as other groups, are challenging the validity of this use of the Emergencies Act, including before the Federal Court.