Trudeau and his ministers must make the case that the nut they had to crack was much tougher than a rowdy occupation by some unsophisticated troublemakers
The onus is on the government to prove that it believed there was a clear and present threat to national security from the truckers’ convoy that existing legislation could not contain. “The rule of law requires nothing less,” said Alford.Article content
To be clear, the illegal occupation in Ottawa was best summed up in the emergency debate in the House of Commons at the time by Conservative MP Michael Chong, who said all Canadians have the right to protest, as a fundamental freedom enshrined in the Constitution. But they do not have the right to blockade streets, highways, border crossings, rail lines or pipelines. “There is no right to harm other people or interfere with the freedom of fellow citizens,” he said.
Many of those arrested in Ottawa were charged with committing mischief, an offence already on the books. The explanation given by Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino was that the protests were coordinated “by a small, organized group driven by an ideology to overthrow the government through whatever means.”The commission’s first day allowed counsel for all parties with standing to summarize their case. We will subsequently have 30 days of hearings before the final report is delivered by Judge Rouleau to Parliament on Feb. 20.
The suspicion is that the Americans were getting antsy about the impact on international trade and the Liberal government panicked. Certainly, the order-in-council used to implement and justify the legislation talks more about the relationship with trading partners, the adverse effect on the Canadian economy and the breakdown in distribution chains than it does about the security of Canada.
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