Mendicino faces censure for contempt of Parliament over unlawful Emergencies Act

Liberal MP Marco Mendicino, former public safety minister, on Thursday faced formal demands that he be censured for contempt of Parliament from the time of the Freedom Convoy. Mendicino was accused of deliberately lying regarding his 2022 use of the Emergencies Act against peaceful demonstrators on Parliament Hill, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “Parliament deserves to receive clear and definitive answers to questions,” said Conservative MP Glen Motz.“We must be entitled to the truth.”“The overwhelming body of evidence, in fact basically every source of evidence other than the former minister himself, contradicts the former minister.”“There can be no reasonable conclusion other than the fact the former minister’s statement was misleading.”A Speaker’s ruling is pending. Mendicino was fired from cabinet in 2023. He did not comment in the House..Attorney General Virani stands by decision to invoke Emergencies Act despite court ruling.The motion of censure targeted Mendicino’s testimony at an April 26, 2022 hearing of the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency.“It was on the advice of non-partisan professional law enforcement that existing authorities were ineffective,” he said.The committee yesterday contradicted Mendicino in a final report tabled in Parliament.“There is evidence to suggest police leadership had not exhausted all available tools to bring the protests and blockades to their conclusion when the federal government decided to invoke the Emergencies Act,” said the Review Of The Exercise Of Powers And The Performance Of Duties And Functions Pursuant To The Declaration Of Emergency.Mendicino’s claim that he acted on the advice of police “has been flatly contradicted by all other evidence on the question,” Motz told the Commons.“The Special Joint Committee was intentionally misled.”.Government refusing to disclose lawyers’ fees in Freedom Convoy inquiry .The Conservative Party in a Dissenting Opinion filed with the committee report said Mendicino lied.“We believe Mr. Mendicino blatantly misled the committee when he told us that ‘we invoked the Act because it was the advice of non-partisan professional law enforcement,’” it said.The Bloc Québécois in a Complementary Report did not single out Mendicino by name but said cabinet’s use of emergency powers was abusive and unnecessary.“The Emergencies Act was the heavy artillery of Canadian legislation that should only be invoked in cases of extreme emergency,” wrote the Bloc.“This guiding principle did not guide the federal government’s decision.”No police officer corroborated Mendicino’s story. All evidence filed with parliamentary committees and a judicial inquiry contradicted his testimony.All police questioned under oath also refuted Mendicino’s version of events.“No, there was never a question of requesting the Emergencies Act,” then-RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki testified May 10, 2022.“I did not make the request,” ex-Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly testified June 2, 2022.“No,” then-Ontario Provincial Police Chief Superintendent Carson Pardy testified October 21, 2022..Feds admit they never checked whether frozen Freedom Convoy accounts were justified.Mendicino throughout the Freedom Convoy protests declined to name which police officer asked cabinet to invoke emergency powers. Cabinet would not have acted with a police request, he said.“We are listening to law enforcement,” Mendicino said February 21, 2022.“According to law enforcement we still need the Emergencies Act.”“We had to invoke the Emergencies Act and we did so on the basis of non-partisan professional advice from law enforcement,” he said days later on February 28.“It was only after we got advice from law enforcement that we invoked the Emergencies Act,” Mendicino said April 28.“We invoked the Emergencies Act after we received advice from law enforcement,” he repeated May 3.

Mendicino faces censure for contempt of Parliament over unlawful Emergencies Act

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