Vehicles block a road during a truck driver protest over pandemic health rules and the Trudeau government outside Parliament in Ottawa on February 15. ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images
The night before the federal government imposed the Federal Emergency Act for the first time in Canadian history, the prime minister’s national security and intelligence adviser, Jody Thomas, told Justin Trudeau and the rest of the cabinet federal that there was potential for a breakthrough. with the protesters in Ottawa.
The startling revelation comes in a package of cabinet-level documents, previously marked secret, which outline discussions that took place in February as the cabinet weighed how to deal with a wave of highly disruptive protests across the country that have they focused primarily on opposing the COVID-19 vaccine. mandates
The documents are very redacted and there is no detailed explanation in the unredacted sections related to the reference of a possible breakthrough.
The Liberal government will release cabinet documents to the Emergency Act inquiry
The records were released as part of two cases challenging the use of the Emergency Act. The Canadian Constitution Foundation, a not-for-profit legal organization, filed an application in late February for a judicial review of the government’s decision to invoke the act.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has also filed an application for judicial review of the act’s invocation.
On Monday, February 14, the day the act was invoked, Mr. Trudeau told a news conference that “It is now clear that there are serious challenges to the ability of law enforcement to effectively enforce the law.”
The cabinet papers include the minutes of a Sunday evening meeting of the full federal cabinet, which took place from 8.30pm to 10pm.
The meeting of February 13 was chaired by Mr. Trudeau. RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, Canadian Security Intelligence Service Director David Vigneault and other senior public officials and political aides also attended.
The minutes describe a “situation update” given to the cabinet by Ms. Thomas.
The national security adviser noted that there were several border crossings that continued to experience blockades, “despite the success of law enforcement in Windsor in disbursing the blockade from the Ambassador Bridge.”
Ms. Thomas told the group that social media continues to play an active role in communicating and organizing protesters across the country. He also said CSIS “continues to monitor persons of interest.”
The minutes then refer to the situation in Ottawa, where protesters and their parked vehicles, including numerous large transport trucks, had effectively shut down the city’s core for weeks by blocking streets in the area near Parliament Hill .
“Regarding recent actions, the National Security and Intelligence Adviser indicated that law enforcement gains have been significant and that there was potential for progress in Ottawa, Ontario and that the RCMP was taking enforcement action in Coutts, Alberta,” the document states. .
Virtually all of the remaining minutes describing the meeting are redacted.
The Globe and Mail asked the Prime Minister’s Office for comment on the release of the documents and the reference to a possible breakthrough. The government responded with a statement from Alexander Cohen, spokesman for Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino.
“The potential for a breakthrough relates to negotiations led primarily by the City of Ottawa with the illegal blockers in the days before the Emergency Act was invoked. The government closely monitored the state of negotiations, which were disavowed by many associated with the so-called freedom convoy and ultimately unsuccessful,” he said.
The reference of Ms. Thomas to a possible breakthrough was made on the night of February 13. Earlier in the day, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson told reporters the city had been involved in “back channel negotiations” with protesters.
The Liberal government invoked the Emergency Act after more than two weeks of protests in Ottawa. Nine days later, on February 23, he rose, and Mr. Trudeau said the situation was “no longer” an emergency. Police had carried out a massive sweep of downtown Ottawa to clear the self-proclaimed Freedom Convoy days earlier.
It is very unusual for minutes of cabinet meetings to be published in any form. Cabinet records are exempt from publication under the Access to Information Act and are usually only made public as historical records after decades.
Conservative and NDP MPs said Thursday that the revelation of new details in court, along with the strong redactions, shows the government is not being transparent in defending its use of the law.
“The revelation that there was a possible breakthrough in negotiations the day before the Trudeau government used the Emergency Act raises serious questions about the Liberal’s claim that the Emergency Act was used as a last-ditch tool resource,” Conservative House Leader John Brassard said, adding. which provides “further proof” that the government’s approach was to solve a political problem.
NDP MPs Alistair MacGregor and Matthew Green issued a joint statement saying that while the NDP supported the use of the Emergency Act, the revelations of a possible breakthrough show “a clear failure of the Liberals to be transparent with Canadians and parliamentarians.”
The NDP also questioned why the documents were given to the Federal Court but not to the parliamentarians reviewing the matter.
The Emergency Act gave police the ability to arrest protesters within specific designated off-limits areas and gave banks the power to freeze protesters’ accounts without a court order. The move to invoke the act was supported by the federal NPD, but opposed by the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois. Related protests at several border crossings between the United States and Canada also created costly trade disruptions.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation said in a statement to The Globe that “the evidence presented by the government as to whether they meet the legal requirements of the Emergencies Act is wholly inadequate.”
The documents include the minutes of a February 12 meeting of the Incident Response Group, which is also chaired by Mr. Trudeau, but that is limited to a few ministers as opposed to the full cabinet. Minutes of the group’s meetings show that a large number of security agency leaders, senior civil servants and political aides also attended.
Mr. Trudeau said the protests were getting the attention of the whole world.
“The Prime Minister confirmed that he has been speaking with a number of international partners and they all express concern about Canada and our ability to manage this,” the minutes said.
During this meeting, minutes were drawn up summarizing a discussion that described two different movements involved in the blockades.
“The first is relatively harmless and happy with a strong relationship with religious communities. The second is more worrisome and is made up of more hard-line extremists who are trying to undermine government institutions and law enforcement,” the February 12 minutes said.
These minutes also show that the Minister of Public Safety briefed his colleagues on an “engagement strategy” with leaders of the blockades, particularly those in Ottawa. The minister indicated that “a document was shared outlining an initial framework that includes the goal of de-escalating the situation and encouraging protesters to leave.”
The minutes then note that there was a discussion about “how the Ontario government’s engagement was attempted in Windsor last night, through a letter, and how the protesters had declined the offer to participate, leading to enforcement actions beginning this morning.”
The package of redacted documents also includes the minutes of a February 10 meeting of the Federal Incident Response Group.
These acts include summaries of the various protests that were taking place across the country, mainly near border crossings.
“The RCMP Commissioner indicated that Windsor remains the number one priority,” the February 10 minute states.
The documents later say: “The Prime Minister set the conversation to discuss two possible avenues: 1) actions that could be taken under existing authorities, and 2) the process of invoking the Emergency Act” .
The following sentence is redacted. The minutes then read: “Public Safety reported a conversation with the lead negotiator (OPP) who noted that in Ottawa, approximately 80% of protesters had a weak connection to the cause, 5% had strong devotion and 15% were a swing factor. The negotiator suggested that protest leaders could be encouraged to walk out and denounce the blockade in exchange for a commitment to register their message with the government.”
Practically all the remaining text of the minutes of this meeting is redacted.
After the act was lifted, a parliamentary commission was set up to review its use, in accordance with a liability provision of the Emergencies Act. Between March and June, the special joint emergency declaration committee held a series of meetings, where they heard testimony from senior RCMP and law enforcement officials, as well as Mr. Beggar
Ms. Lucki, the RCMP commissioner, told the committee the service did not directly request the invocation of the act, but said it helped reduce the size of the protest and clear it up. Steve Bell, Ottawa’s interim police chief, and Peter Sloly, who resigned as chief during the protests, have also said they did not request the act.
Amid these revelations, Mr. Mendicino came under scrutiny for his previous comments about invoking the act. During a committee hearing on April 26, Mr. Mendicino said, “We invoked the act because it was the advice of a nonpartisan, professional law enforcement.”
A senior public security official…