The Freedom to Avert Crisis

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An independent panel found the Canadian government was justified in its decision to invoke emergency measures last year to disperse trucker protests that had gridlocked the country’s capital and blocked US-Canada border crossings, Al Jazeera reported.

The Public Order Emergency Commission submitted a report to Canadian lawmakers over the weekend, following a year-long probe into the government’s handling of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” movement in early 2022.

Commissioner Paul Rouleau said that the government had met “the very high threshold required for the invocation” of the Emergency Act that was used to curb the mass demonstrations.

At the time, “Freedom Convoy” participants were protesting a vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the Canada-US border and were calling for an end to all Covid-19 restrictions. They also wanted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down.

Protesters occupied Ottawa’s downtown area for weeks and disrupted the daily life of its residents. Others erected barricades at border crossings.

In February 2022, Trudeau became the first Canadian leader to invoke the Emergency Act, which gave the government sweeping powers to block the right to public assembly “that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace” and restrict access to specific areas, to disperse the protests.

Authorities also arrested dozens of participants.

Civil rights advocates criticized the move and questioned whether the government had met the strict legal criteria required to invoke the act.

Rouleau countered that the government had “reasonable grounds” to believe there was a national emergency during the demonstrations.

Even so, the panel commissioner noted that he came to his conclusion “with reluctance,” adding that the use of act could have been avoided if police and governments at all levels had better prepared for the convoy.