Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the findings that the federal government was justified in its invocation of the Emergencies Act to deal with the Freedom Convoy on Friday, claiming that while his cabinet "didn't want to" invoke the act, it needed to do so to end the "lawlessness."."Let's be clear, we didn't want to have to invoke the Emergencies Act. It's a measure of last resort," Trudeau said to reporters on Friday.."But the risk to personal safety, the risk to livelihoods and equally, the risk of people losing faith in the rule of law that upholds our society and our freedoms, Those risks were real. Responsible leadership required us to restore peace and order.".The prime minister acknowledged that Canadians had "been through a lot" during the pandemic of the last two years, and stressed that they have a fundamental right to peacefully protest. But he also repeated the words of Commissioner Paul Rouleau, who said the Freedom Convoy protest in response to public health restrictions "descended into lawlessness, culminating in a national emergency.".The findings from the Public Order Emergency Commission revealed on Friday that Rouleau found cabinet met the “very high threshold” for invoking the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy. He said there was "credible and compelling information supporting a reasonable belief that the definition of a threat to the security of Canada was met.".“It is only in rare instances, when the state cannot otherwise fulfill its fundamental obligation to ensure the safety and security of people and property, that resort to emergency measures will be found to be appropriate,” Rouleau said in the executive summary of the report..READ MORE: Commissioner finds Liberals met threshold for invoking Emergencies Act for Freedom Convoy.Trudeau said invoking the Emergencies Act was "unfortunate" and "undesirable," but there was no other way to keep Canadians safe..Within the next year, the federal government will issue a comprehensive public response to the commissioners recommendations, according to Trudeau. "We all agree that we should never have reached such a melting point. And we all agree that the important conclusions to be drawn and lessons for everyone involved, including law enforcement agencies, all orders of government and elected officials," he said.."We will take seriously what the commissioner concludes and what he proposes. Responsible leadership means that we are always striving to do the very best for Canadians, in words and in deeds," Trudeau said..During the press conference, Trudeau was also asked about his Jan. 27 comments, where he said the convoy approaching Ottawa contained a “small fringe minority” of people with “unacceptable views." In the report, Rouleau said those comments were interpreted by many as referring to all protestors, which served to “energize" them and harden their resolve..While Trudeau said he wished he had "phrased it differently," he maintained that a "very small number of people" had spread pandemic misinformation and disinformation that led to "excessive hardship in people who believed them."."I continued to be very, very firm against those individuals. But that is a small subset of people who were just hurting and worried and wanting to be heard," Trudeau said. "And as much as I tried to emphasize throughout the time, that of course we're always going to stand up for freedom of speech and freedom to protest peacefully, I wish I hadn't said something that was able to be spread larger.."If I chosen my words a bit more carefully and been a bit more specific, I think things might have been a bit easier."
