Rouleau Excusing Trudeau Government Crime

Excuse Making

Vincent J. Curtis

22 Feb 23

RE: Learning the lessons of the trucker convoy.  Hamilton Spectator editorial 22 Feb 23.

A “weighty endorsement” made “with reluctance” is just the sort of thing I’d expect from Liberal Party squishes and Trudeau apologists.  But “a series of police and political breakdowns” is not among the legal reasons for invoking the Emergencies Act.  It is quite untrue that the Trudeau government was “left with no option but to use the Emergencies Act.”

One painfully obvious option was for Trudeau to toss the severed head of the vaccine mandate to the jubilant multitude, whose demand being satisfied would have quickly dispersed.  But Trudeau could not tell his medical officials to “find another way;” no, he felt his reputation involved, and tyrants can’t admit to being wrong.

A public order emergency can only be invoked – at least by the language of the statute – when:  “(c) activities within or relating to Canada directed toward or in support of the threat or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or ideological objective within Canada or a foreign state”

When the EA was passed in 1988, the FLQ crisis of 1970 was in mind.  By “serious violence” the legislators passing the bill understood acts such as the murder of Quebec’s Deputy Premier Pierre LaPorte and the kidnapping of British Trade Commissioner James Cross.  Not so much as a broken window can be laid at the feet of the Freedom Convoy.

The Liberal government took the legal advice of Attorney-General David Lametti that the cabinet was not bound by the language of the statute, and so upon that advice, which remains a state secret under solicitor-client privilege and cabinet secrecy, the Act was invoked.  Hence, we do not know the conditions under which the EA can be invoked, since the cabinet can rely upon any legal advice compliant with its wishes, and the plain English reading of the statute lies discredited as protection and guidance.

The EA was invoked in order that the bank accounts of the protesters could be seized.  DPM Chrystia Freeland had looked into declaring the protesters “domestic terrorists,” as such a declaration would enable the banks to seize the protesters’ accounts.  But going that route would place either A-G David Lametti or CSIS Director David Vignault in an uncomfortable spotlight as it would be on their authority that such a fantastic and unbelievable declaration would be made.  That approach was abandoned in favor of invoking the EA, where blame could be hidden and shared.

The half-hearted justification of the invocation of the EA falls short of what the Trudeau government and his court eunuchs of the main stream media hoped for, and even they know it.

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We now know that the vaccines were useless or worse than useless against the Omicron variant then prevalent, and hence the Freedom Convoy protesters were right on the merits of their case.  The Rouleau opinion amounts to saying the government has to power to unwisely enforce its will even when it is in the wrong.