The night before the federal government invoked the Emergency Act in response to the “Freedom Convoy” protests, the prime minister’s national security adviser told him there was “potential for a breakthrough” in Ottawa, court documents show.
However, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office said “the potential for a breakthrough relates to negotiations led primarily by the City of Ottawa with the illegal blockers” in the days before that the act be invoked.
“The government closely monitored the status of the negotiations, which were disavowed by many associated with the so-called Freedom Convoy and ultimately unsuccessful,” a spokesman for the minister said in a statement to CTV on Thursday News. “The government considered that as a factor in the decision to invoke the Emergency Act. More broadly, the government invoked the Emergency Act because it was necessary.”
The highly redacted documents, filed in federal court as the government’s use of the act faces a legal challenge, detail conversations held by cabinet ministers and government officials over the days prior to February 14, when the Law of Emergencies was invoked for the first time. in Canadian history.
The documents include cabinet meeting minutes from February 10, when the federal government was plotting scenarios of “how bad things could get” if the controversial act was invoked.
At the time, Ontario Provincial Police negotiators told the government that leaders of the Ottawa protest could be encouraged to walk out and call off the blockade “in exchange for a commitment to register their message with the government.”
The documents show the most pressing issue for the federal government at the time was not the protest outside Parliament, but the reopening of Canada’s busiest trade route — the Ambassador Bridge that connects Windsor, Ont. and Detroit, which was also affected by the lockdowns.
In the documents about the February 13 cabinet meeting where the “potential for advancement” is mentioned, the rest of this conversation is redacted.
In April, a national inquiry was launched into the government’s use of the act to end the “Freedom Convoy” trucker protests and blockades. Paul S. Rouleau, a longtime judge, is leading the independent investigation and is due to submit his final report by February 20, 2023.