Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said lives "literally hung in the balance" the day the RCMP executed a police operation at the blockade near Coutts, AB.."This was a threshold moment for me. There is no doubt about it," Mendicino told the Public Order Emergency Commission on Tuesday..Mendicino said the day before the police operation on February 13, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki updated him on the situation.."She did call me and only me. She underlined, for me, the situation in Coutts involved a hardened cell of individuals armed to the teeth with lethal firearms, who possessed a willingness to go down with the cause," he said..The minister called it a "threshold moment" given some of the protestors were "prepared to go down with a fight." He added he was "relieved" when the remaining protestors at Coutts decided to return home over the following days..Mendicino differentiated between the majority of Freedom Convoy protestors, who were expressing "legitimate opinions and views as they related to federal policy," and the smaller number of protestors who were prepared to be violent..Mendicino said there were threats levied against the police, members of the media, and even Mendicino and his family..During the protests, according to Mendicino, the criminal code, the Highway Traffic Act, and tow trucks could not be used to remove the protestors. "All of that was leading to a significant risk of violence as time went on."
