“Criminalizing Dissent”

Whatever else the public inquiry into the Trudeau government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to end the chaos in downtown Ottawa earlier this year may or may not determine, it has already triumphantly vindicated one thing: the Emergencies Act itself.

The inquiry, formally known as the Public Order Emergency Commission, was not struck at the government’s discretion, but was explicitly mandated by the act, as was the joint parliamentary committee that is already holding hearings. The government will not be able to avail itself of the “if you knew what we knew” defence, beloved of tyrants everywhere: After the commission has finished its work, we will know what they knew.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland grossly inflated estimates of the Freedom Convoy impact on the Canadian economy, internal documents show. Freeland cited figures described in one Department of Transport memo as an “extreme case” that did not reflect actual data.

“The blockade of the Ambassador Bridge has affected about $390 million in trade each day,” Freeland told reporters last February 14. “This bridge supports 30% of all trade by road between Canada and the United States.”

Windsor? $3 billion?
The economic nightmare that wasn’t? Border blockades had little effect on trade, data reveals: https://t.co/oPlIljx3k1 https://t.co/6lIn4zTFjk

— Lorrie Goldstein (@sunlorrie) October 15, 2022

“Everyone,” says the Charter of Rights, has the fundamental freedom “of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” Everyone, that is, except Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the truckers’ Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa in January and February.

Most egregiously, under her bail conditions Lich must remain publicly silent pending the result of her court hearing in September 2023—including no social media use whatsoever—all for exercising her right to protest in a free country.

The long anticipated public inquiry into the federal government’s first ever invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy protests are finally underway in Ottawa. The Public Order Emergency Commission, also known as the Rouleau Commission, commenced hearings Thursday in Ottawa with opening statements from parties and the introduction of overview reports from commission counsel.

OTTAWA — Advocates for Ottawa businesses said former police chief Peter Sloly told them he was “scared” by the Freedom Convoy protests in the days following the first weekend of blockades, the Public Order Emergency Commission heard Friday.

With the Emergencies Act Inquiry, the jig is up for Justin Trudeau and time is running out for the prime minister.

At least as far as the truth is concerned.

We will soon know Trudeau was very well acquainted with the facts of the Freedom Convoy, but he chose to assiduously ignore them and distort reality to his own political ends.

The evidence already points this way.

OTTAWA — The national inquiry into the invocation of the Emergencies Act, in the wake of the truckers’ convoy occupation of downtown Ottawa, is going to be used as a political bullhorn for all kinds of individuals and groups who have been granted standing.

He can’t. He’s a compulsive liar. But it’s not as if he’ll be punished for it.

Emergencies Act wasn’t needed to deal with ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests, OPP says as public inquiry begins

OTTAWA—The Ontario Provincial Police joined some provinces, civil liberties groups and so-called “Freedom Convoy” protesters Thursday in saying it was unnecessary for the federal government to use the Emergencies Act to deal with last winter’s crisis of demonstrations and blockades.

Lawyers for the Alberta and Saskatchewan governments claimed their provinces were blindsided on Feb. 14 when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the premiers to say Ottawa was considering the never-before-used law to quash the protests — a controversial decision announced later that same day.

The Public Order Emergency Commission’s public hearings into the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act last winter kicked off on Oct. 13 with introductory remarks from various parties who have been granted standing in the proceedings, allowing all sides to essentially make their opening arguments.

From federal officials outlining why they think the national inquiry into the government’s invocation of unprecedented powers through the Emergencies Act will conclude that its use was warranted, to lawyers for the central ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest organizers arguing that the government exceeded its jurisdiction, here are the key positions presented on day one by central players in the commission

OTTAWA — On the eve of the public inquiry into the federal government’s first-ever use of the Emergencies Act, civil liberties groups are questioning whether the controversial move was necessary — as the government insists — to deal with self-styled “Freedom Convoy” protests last winter.

At a press conference on Parliament Hill on Wednesday, lawyers from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) argued the government failed to meet the high legal threshold to invoke the act, and created special temporary powers in the process that breached fundamental rights.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s department censored “hundreds” of pages of documents related to security measures taken against the Freedom Convoy in February, according to Bloc Québécois MP Rhéal Fortin.

Public Safety provided the documents to the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency after being ordered to do so by the committee in May. Fortin told the committee on Oct. 6 that it “needs to address” why large portions of the Public Safety documents have been censored.

OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — It has now been revealed that statements by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau associating the “Freedom Convoy” with Nazism were unfounded, according to Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents published by Blacklock’s Reporter.