The leader of the People’s Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier, took part in the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa for several weekends in a row last year..Learning about the findings of the Rouleau Commission while touring Manitoba on Friday, he declared himself not surprised that Justice Paul Rouleau concluded that Trudeau's use of the Emergencies Act was justified..“I have to say, I am profoundly disappointed, but not surprised," Bernier said.."Justice Rouleau was hand-picked by Trudeau to oversee the inquiry. We can't forget that he has a history as a Liberal activist and worked with former Prime Minister John Turner. Is anyone really surprised that Liberals protect their own? This Commission was not independent, as it should have been. It was Liberals investigating Liberals.”.In the report released Friday, Rouleau summarized the Freedom Convoy — formed in response to cross-border vaccine mandates for truck drivers — as a movement in which simmering social, political and economic grievances were exacerbated by the pandemic, shaped by complex misinformation and disinformation online, and “unleashed in a torrent of political protest and social unrest.”.READ MORE: Commissioner finds Liberals met threshold for invoking Emergencies Act for Freedom Convoy.Rouleau said this was “not entirely unpredictable,” as pandemics are often accompanied by a surge in civil unrest. He said that had various police forces and levels of government prepared for events of this type and responded differently to the situation that arose, “the emergency that Canada ultimately faced could have likely been avoided.”.Bernier said he finds it surrealistic that Rouleau writes in his report that it was reasonable to believe that the protest posed “a threat to the security of Canada.”.“I was there. It was a peaceful and joyful protest by patriotic Canadians," Bernier said.."There was no justification at all to invoke the Act. It was done illegally, that’s what Justice Rouleau should have concluded if he had done an honest investigation rather than a partisan one.”.The PPC leader said he believes that at the end of the day, the findings of the Rouleau Commission "don't really matter.".“We all know that Trudeau would not have resigned even if the Commission had found he overstepped his powers," Bernier said.
