Emergencies Act inquiry showed Liberal contempt for citizens

 Liberals make a mockery of Canadian democracy | National Post - Rex Murphy:

What both the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the inquiry show is how contemptuous this government is of its citizens

November 25, 2022 - "The inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act is in its sixth week, which, it may be useful to note, is about five times longer than the act itself was in force. Hold in mind that the act was actually only half-passed. It got through the Singh-Trudeau House of Commons.... But it never made it to the Senate — a requirement of its legitimacy, all too soon forgotten — being conveniently called down before it could be questioned or challenged there.... 

"It should be more than curious that it takes six weeks to hear how and why the government went to its most extreme measure, when most likely it was a decision made in a single day by a handful of senior ministers, the wizard advisers in the PMO, and of course the high sage himself, the prime minister. Well, even after six weeks, I’m still stuck on the most basic two points.

"An Ottawa street was tied up — Wellington — for a few weeks. Inconvenient, annoying — yes, but all of Ottawa wasn’t put in some sort of civic hibernation with this protest. But let us grant that it was an emergency in or for Ottawa. Name any other capital city in the country, never mind any full province or territory, that felt any impact whatsoever. Ninety-nine per cent of the country went about its business as usual. This stretched-out inquiry seems very little interested in the raw question of how a limited protest in Ottawa got so easily designated a national emergency....

"In the past couple of days we heard some really weird stuff from the government ministers. 'How many tanks are you asking for?'.... Tanks? For a peaceful protest?... They say now it was just a 'joke' ... but considering the language they have used about the convoy — the talk of Nazis and supremacists and 'foreign sources' and 'terrorists' — I am extremely dubious that when that question was first put forward, it was with a chuckle or two. And is it so far from Trudeau’s chatter about a 'fringe minority' that should not to be tolerated, to delusive fears requiring a full military response?

"To a normal mind, the parked trucks on Wellington Street was not a replay of the Normandy landings. But the pervasive immaturity of the Trudeau cabinet, and himself, and the taste for show that characterizes both, suggest they had an appetite for a heroic role and the drama associated with 'saving democracy.' And the lure of /War Measures Act — The Sequel/ was too strong to resist.

"Consider Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s Churchillian resolve: 'I will never support negotiating with those who hold our democracy hostage.' A sentence that reveals she’s a hero in her own movie. Where was this deplorable hostage holding? Was Parliament stormed? The Speaker hauled off to the cab of a truck? Were MPs rounded up? Were militias surrounding the Commons? Or the Cottage?.... Freeland’s 'courageous' declaration was pure nonsense and fantasy. Canadian democracy was never, not for a minute, being held 'hostage.' Except, ironically, for the period of the Emergencies Act....

"Justice Minister David Lametti in his turn at the inquiry — an inquiry whose purpose, as statutorily required, is to determine if invoking the Emergencies Act was justified — was less than Windex clear: He really couldn’t divulge anything about what led to the decision due to solicitor-client privilege. Asked if cabinet had received a legal opinion about the invocation of the act, he said he could not confirm or deny that....

"I am beginning to wonder which is the more empty, the more theatrical — the invocation of the Emergencies Act, or this dubious shell of an inquiry. It started with 'honk trauma' and has wound down with a splay of non-answers, claims of 'cabinet confidentiality' on the very issues for which it was called, wildly inflated talk of an 'occupation' and a comedy club routine about tanks. What both the invocation and the inquiry show is how contemptuous this government — in particular all its chief ministers — are of ordinary, typical members of the Canadian citizenry. They are not holding democracy 'hostage,' but they are doing a good job of making a mockery of it."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/liberals-make-mockery-of-canadian-democracy