Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal administration has paid $73,550,568 to date on cracking down on Canadians who participated in the 2022 Freedom Convoy. A subsequent judicial inquiry cost an additional $17.5 million, per Blacklock’s Reporter. Unfinalized expense documents tabled in the House of Commons outline the costs for the invocation of the War Measures (Emergencies) Act on February 14, 2022 to clear peaceful protestors in Ottawa’s downtown core.“Costs associated with fiscal year 2023 to 2024 are still to be determined,” the Department of Safety wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry at the request of Conservative MP Ziad Aboultaif. “With regard to enactment of the Emergencies Act in 2022, what was the cost burden for the government?” asked Aboultaif.The Inquiry indicated most public safety expenses were allocated to officials in Ottawa and Windsor, ON. “It should be noted additional funding allocated by the government to Ottawa and its partners as well as Windsor were not specifically as a result of the Emergencies Act invocation but meant to compensate both municipalities for the extraordinary expenses incurred during and after the protracted blockades,” it said.The RCMP also incurred extraordinary expenses, including $400,000 on charter flights and $1.3 million in hotel rooms for out-of-town constables summoned to Ottawa in anticipation of a lengthy conflict.Cabinet invoked the War Measures (Emergencies) Act February 14, 2022 and suspended it on the 23rd. An internal RCMP briefing note dated February 14, 2022, entitled Truckers Convoy And Protective Services, shows the RCMP expected protests to last another month or more.“Intelligence information suggests that convoy protesters are beginning to weaponize themselves. Officers are constantly monitoring the shift in behaviour and will respond accordingly,” said the brief. The RCMP at the time had “between 210 and 250 uniformed members” stationed outside parliament. “The RCMP also continues to have approximately 350 members deployed daily in support of our protective mandate,” wrote officials.Despite then-Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s lament to reporters the demonstration “could have been deadly,” no firearms or explosives were ever found in Freedom Convoy trucks outside parliament. The Toronto Star on March 19, 2022, published a story called Inside The Convoy that was later dismissed by the Ottawa Police Service as false, quoted an unnamed police source claiming truckers hidden loaded shotguns inside their vehicles. “Fears that there were weapons inside some of the trucks proved prescient. A police source said loaded shotguns were found,” reported the Star. Mendicino was also quoted in the story. “It was nothing short of miraculous that nobody was seriously injured,” said Mendicino, according to the publication. Liberal MP Marc Miller, who is now immigration minister, retweeted the story on March 19. “Was the Freedom Convoy really about vaccine mandates or something darker?” he queried in the caption.Under oath during the 2022 War Measures (Emergencies) Act Inquiry at the Commons Public Safety Committee police testified there were neither loaded shotguns nor firearms of any kind found inside trucks parked at Parliament.“This is misinformation,” Conservative MP Dane Lloyd told the committee.
