Have I got news for you readers today. The Public Order Emergency Commission, otherwise known as the Emergencies Act Inquiry, is not really over. Yes, we thought with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s exit on Blackface Friday (as it was known on Twitter), the Inquiry had heard its last witness and Justice Paul Rouleau and company would hunker down to write their report. .But the Inquiry continues this week with the quiet testimony of 'experts' who will assess whether Trudeau was justified in invoking the Emergencies [War Measures] Act to crush the Freedom Convoy. That worries this reporter because having spent years watching parliamentary committees, I know that the government — like any gambling house in Las Vegas — inevitably wins. It gets to select more witnesses than the opposition parties and it seems probable that this principle will be in play in this process. But I will continue to attend the Inquiry and hope I’m wrong. .What did we learn in the last six weeks? .We learned that Trudeau misled the commission, the media and the public about how he spoke about the unvaccinated. He denied calling them 'names' like misogynistic and racist, when he in fact did. He also dismissed the Freedom Convoy demonstrators as “not very smart people.” Remember that one? .We learned that Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the self-proclaimed “Ford Nation” populist, wanted the police to get aggressive and tough with the protesters and was in Trudeau’s pocket from the beginning — although he didn’t want to say so publicly until he finally backed the invocation of the Emergencies Act. .We learned that Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has no remorse nor regrets for freezing people’s bank accounts — from actual Freedom Convoy protesters to ordinary people who just donated online — and she actually had the gall to call this financial violence an “economic incentive” because it was supposed to convince people to stop backing a cause they supported. .And how would that work exactly? Would Freedom Convoy supporters be obliged to swear an oath of allegiance to Trudeau or Freeland and promise not to become part of an anti-mandate protest in the future? Would Freeland freeze bank accounts again to hit people who don’t share her Liberal Party values? Undoubtedly. Just make her day. .We were told how Justice Minister David Lametti wanted to use tanks against peaceful protesters and was so frightened by truckers in the nation’s capital, that he wanted to run for cover. .We also learned that not a single police force told Trudeau that the Emergencies Act was necessary to stop the Freedom Convoy. In the testimony we heard from all levels of policing, no one said they couldn't deal with this supposed crisis without the Emergencies Act. At the eleventh hour, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) claimed there was a need but that contradicted earlier advice that CSIS offered, suggesting the Freedom Convoy did not constitute a violent threat to the government. .We learned that the Freedom Convoy leaders did not always agree with each other, that there was in-fighting, and they were often disorganized. This came as no surprise to me because the Convoy organizers had no sense of how to communicate to the public or media. They assumed we were all going to print or broadcast lies about them and it was difficult to know when and where their news conferences would be happening and who would be there. .But when you consider that this was a grassroots protest that almost happened extemporaneously, then it shouldn’t surprise us that they didn’t have all their ducks in order before the protests began. .We learned that people like Convoy organizer Tamara Lich — with whom I spoke last week — should never have been put in jail without bail and didn’t really belong there in the first place. She was a fundraiser for non-violent protest and in a few short weeks became a Canadian folk hero for taking on Trudeau and the Liberal government. .We ultimately learned what a lot of us had already suspected: That Trudeau used the Emergencies [War Measures] Act not to keep Canadians safe but to eviscerate his political enemies, intimidate his political opposition and silence ideological dissent. Trudeau should be ashamed of his actions; but he is not. He remains a narcissistic politician who really believes he is blameless and his adversaries are guilty.
Have I got news for you readers today. The Public Order Emergency Commission, otherwise known as the Emergencies Act Inquiry, is not really over. Yes, we thought with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s exit on Blackface Friday (as it was known on Twitter), the Inquiry had heard its last witness and Justice Paul Rouleau and company would hunker down to write their report. .But the Inquiry continues this week with the quiet testimony of 'experts' who will assess whether Trudeau was justified in invoking the Emergencies [War Measures] Act to crush the Freedom Convoy. That worries this reporter because having spent years watching parliamentary committees, I know that the government — like any gambling house in Las Vegas — inevitably wins. It gets to select more witnesses than the opposition parties and it seems probable that this principle will be in play in this process. But I will continue to attend the Inquiry and hope I’m wrong. .What did we learn in the last six weeks? .We learned that Trudeau misled the commission, the media and the public about how he spoke about the unvaccinated. He denied calling them 'names' like misogynistic and racist, when he in fact did. He also dismissed the Freedom Convoy demonstrators as “not very smart people.” Remember that one? .We learned that Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the self-proclaimed “Ford Nation” populist, wanted the police to get aggressive and tough with the protesters and was in Trudeau’s pocket from the beginning — although he didn’t want to say so publicly until he finally backed the invocation of the Emergencies Act. .We learned that Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has no remorse nor regrets for freezing people’s bank accounts — from actual Freedom Convoy protesters to ordinary people who just donated online — and she actually had the gall to call this financial violence an “economic incentive” because it was supposed to convince people to stop backing a cause they supported. .And how would that work exactly? Would Freedom Convoy supporters be obliged to swear an oath of allegiance to Trudeau or Freeland and promise not to become part of an anti-mandate protest in the future? Would Freeland freeze bank accounts again to hit people who don’t share her Liberal Party values? Undoubtedly. Just make her day. .We were told how Justice Minister David Lametti wanted to use tanks against peaceful protesters and was so frightened by truckers in the nation’s capital, that he wanted to run for cover. .We also learned that not a single police force told Trudeau that the Emergencies Act was necessary to stop the Freedom Convoy. In the testimony we heard from all levels of policing, no one said they couldn't deal with this supposed crisis without the Emergencies Act. At the eleventh hour, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) claimed there was a need but that contradicted earlier advice that CSIS offered, suggesting the Freedom Convoy did not constitute a violent threat to the government. .We learned that the Freedom Convoy leaders did not always agree with each other, that there was in-fighting, and they were often disorganized. This came as no surprise to me because the Convoy organizers had no sense of how to communicate to the public or media. They assumed we were all going to print or broadcast lies about them and it was difficult to know when and where their news conferences would be happening and who would be there. .But when you consider that this was a grassroots protest that almost happened extemporaneously, then it shouldn’t surprise us that they didn’t have all their ducks in order before the protests began. .We learned that people like Convoy organizer Tamara Lich — with whom I spoke last week — should never have been put in jail without bail and didn’t really belong there in the first place. She was a fundraiser for non-violent protest and in a few short weeks became a Canadian folk hero for taking on Trudeau and the Liberal government. .We ultimately learned what a lot of us had already suspected: That Trudeau used the Emergencies [War Measures] Act not to keep Canadians safe but to eviscerate his political enemies, intimidate his political opposition and silence ideological dissent. Trudeau should be ashamed of his actions; but he is not. He remains a narcissistic politician who really believes he is blameless and his adversaries are guilty.
