GOLDSTEIN: Feds cried wolf in invoking Emergencies Act — Toronto Sun
So far, the various justifications the Trudeau government has given for invoking the Emergencies Act against the Freedom Convoy protests have fallen apart. Consider the record to date. Neither the RCMP nor Ottawa police asked the federal government to invoke the act, contrary to claims by Public...
Consider the record to date at the above LINK.
Freedom Convoy protesters did not attempt to set fire to an Ottawa apartment building after locking residents inside, contrary to government claims.
Despite reports of illegal guns in the cabs of some truckers protesting in Ottawa, no gun charges have been laid to date.
Despite claims by Mendicino women were threatened with sexual assault by protesters, no sexual assault charges have been laid to date.
OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique — and some government security officials — have said intelligence gathering indicated the Freedom Convoy protest posed a threat to national security.
Neither the RCMP nor Ottawa police asked the federal government to invoke the act, contrary to claims by Public Safety Minister Marco “Pinocchio” Mendicino.
The Ambassador Bridge blockade ended the night before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act meaning it wasn’t needed, nor did the blockades cause major economic issues.
(Cross-border trade in February 2022 during the Freedom Convoy protests in Ontario and Alberta went up 16% compared to February 2021, based on Statistics Canada data.)
The most serious criminal charges were laid in Coutts, Alberta, where police arrested a dozen people Feb. 14 on allegations ranging from weapons offences to conspiracy to murder.
(That was the same day Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, meaning the charges were made through normal police investigation procedures, unrelated to the act.)
You don’t invoke the Emergencies Act because you think some of the protesters were loud, obnoxious, honked their horns too often, were rude to the media or where blamed for dancing or urinating on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
As the Canadian Civil Liberties Association wrote in its legal challenge of Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act, Canada has experienced “terrorist attacks, economic collapses and a pandemic.
“All of these situations were dealt with using existing laws and normal democratic processes, or, when absolutely necessary, municipal or provincial emergency powers.
“There have also been national protest movements that occupied public spaces and city streets for months and blockaded critical infrastructure such as railways …
“These too (some of them anyway) have been responded to within the context of existing laws.”
