Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was "serene and confident" that he made the right choice by invoking the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy.."The responsibility of a prime minister is to make the tough calls and keep people safe," Trudeau testified on Friday.."We were able to solve the situation with it. There was no loss of life. There was no serious violence. There hasn't been a recurrence of these kinds of illegal occupations since then. I am absolutely serene and confident that I made the right choice in agreeing with the invocation..The prime minister, who invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history on February 14 in response to the trucker protest, walked the Public Order Emergency Commission through the events leading up to his decision..Trudeau said when warnings came that a convoy of transport truckers upset with federal vaccine mandates would be coming to Ottawa, his office was expecting "some activity and strong language." He testified during the 2021 federal election, they had already heard from groups of Canadians upset with vaccine mandates to use public transportation or work in the public sector..But Trudeau and his staff soon became worried the Freedom Convoy protest would be a "different brand of events" than Canadians were used to seeing. It quickly became apparent to Trudeau the protestors would not be leaving Ottawa after the first weekend, and the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) were not in control of the situation..Trudeau said many of the protestor's demands were, "non-starters," including the request to overturn the results of the last election. Trudeau testified he didn't want to set a "bad precedent" where "if anyone wants something, they can just set up a blockade on Wellington Street.".The prime minister said convoy organizer James Bauder's "Memorandum of Understanding," which called to empower the Senate to work with the governor general to create a new government, showed a "lack of understanding of the way of democracy actually works.".Other convoy organizers testified at the commission that they never read Bauder's document..Trudeau said invoking the Emergencies Act had been "in the back of our minds," from the beginning of the trucker protest. Trudeau said it wasn't a "serious consideration" at the start, but whenever a situation has the potential to escalate into violence, "there may be a moment where we have to invoke the Emergencies Act.".Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) Director David Vigneault told the commission earlier this week that the Freedom Convoy did not pose a threat to the security of Canada." But Trudeau said this was as defined by the CSIS Act, which has a broader definition that the Emergencies Act..Trudeau noted that when it comes to invoking the act, the prime minister and his cabinet makes the ultimate decision, not CSIS through it's "deliberately narrow frame.".When deciding whether to invoke the Emergencies Act, Trudeau said his cabinet was focused on "threats of serious violence to Canadians. They described the "weaponization of vehicles," as one example..Trudeau also claimed that children were being used as "human shields, deliberately," as parents brought their children to protests. Another danger, according to the prime minister, was the potential for counter-protestors to try to violently "take back their cities.".The potential for protestor's language to trigger long-wolf terrorist attack was also a possibility. Trudeau noted that while there never any serious violence during the protests, which was "obviously a good thing," that didn't mean there wasn't the potential for it to happen.."Every input we were getting was indicating that things were not getting better and were in fact getting worse.".Trudeau shot down claims that the police were close to executing a plan to clear the protestors from Ottawa..According to the prime minister, the joint February 13 plan between the OPS, Ontario Provincial Police and the RCMP "wasn't a plan at all. Trudeau said it merely focused on using police negotiators to shrink the perimeter of the protest.."It was not even in the most generous of characterizations a plan for how they were going to end the occupation in Ottawa," he said..By the middle of February, Trudeau was seriously considering invoking the Emergencies Act. He called meetings with the Incident Response Group and his cabinet, where everyone agreed that invoking the act was the right move.."People felt comfortable enough together on this issue. We could move on towards the possibility of invoking the Act the next day," he said..Trudeau said didn't make up his mind about invoking the act until the Clerk of the Privy Council gave him a note recommending it. He testified that if they had not given him the green light, he may not have invoked it "and we wouldn't be here today."."If I had been convinced that other orders of government or any other law in Canada was sufficient to deal with this emergency, then we wouldn't have met the threshold," he said..Before Trudeau officially invoked the act, he pondered what might happen if he decided to wait a few days for the situation to resolve on its own.."What if the worst had happened in the following days? What if a police officer had been put in the hospital? he asked. "How would I explain it to the family of a police officer who was killed, or a grandmother who got run over by a truck?".Ultimately, Trudeau said the collective advice of cabinet, of the public service, and his "own inclination" convinced him that invoking the act was "something that we needed to do.".During the proceeding, commission lawyer Shantona Chaudhury called the Freedom Convoy a "real expression of legitimate frustration" on behalf of a significant number of Canadians. She asked why the prime minister didn't engage with them.."We heard them," Trudeau said, adding that the truckers were "very vocal, both in mainstream communications and in social media.".Trudeau said expressing concern about public health measures is "encouraged for any Canadian who wants to."."But the disruption, destabilization of the lives of so many Canadians, and the refusal to maintain a lawful protest, is not alright."
