Trudeau stars at Emergencies Act inquiry this week

Six weeks of testimony at Canada's Emergencies Act inquiry will culminate this week with an appearance by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

Trudeau went all in against the Freedom Convoy. This week, it’s on him to explain why | Politico - Maura Forrest:

November 20, 2022 - "In a rare showing this week, Canada’s prime minister will publicly defend his decision to invoke never-before-used emergency powers to end a weekslong occupation of the nation’s capital last winter. Justin Trudeau’s highly anticipated testimony will cap six weeks of hearings at a public inquiry that has witnessed extraordinary disclosures of the inner workings of police and government during the protest, which culminated in the Feb. 14 invocation of the Emergencies Act.

The act gave authorities broad new powers they used to freeze the bank accounts of protesters, ban travel to protest sites, prohibit people from bringing children to protests and compel tow trucks to clear out vehicles blocking Ottawa streets.... The public inquiry must determine whether Trudeau was justified in using the act. To date, it has heard and seen considerable evidence casting doubt on the Liberal government’s decision. 

"Police agencies have testified the emergency powers weren’t necessary to end the protest of pandemic public health measures. Senior government officials were shown to have harbored doubts. And perhaps most damaging to the government’s case was a revelation last week that Canada’s national intelligence agency did not find the protests posed a threat to Canada’s security. In the final week of hearings, it will fall to Trudeau and several of his ministers and senior staff to prove their case....

"The act, passed in 1988, had never been used and is intended only for national emergencies that can’t be resolved by other means. Its predecessor, the War Measures Act, was most recently used by Trudeau’s father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, in response to a series of terrorist attacks by a militant Quebec independence movement in 1970.

"In February, the opposition Conservatives called the Emergencies Act an 'unprecedented sledgehammer' that was unnecessary to end the protests. Civil liberties groups also claim the Liberals overstepped."

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/20/trudeau-emergencies-act-freedom-convoy-00069651

Trudeau defends vaccine mandates, Emergencies Act, CBC Radio, June 24, 2022: