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(National Post, Oct 28, 2022) \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the second full week of hearings by the Public Order Emergency Commission winds down, it\u2019s becoming increasingly clear just how weak the government\u2019s rationale appears to be for invoking the Emergencies Act. As I wrote last week<\/a>, key witnesses, including the OPP\u2019s intelligence chief Supt. Pat Morris<\/a>, shredded the federal narrative that the protesters were a violent and dangerous fringe who posed an imminent threat to the nation\u2019s capital. Morris\u2019s point of view was reconfirmed by OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique, who asserted categorically that there was no \u201ccredible threat\u201d to national security posed by the Freedom Convoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Echoing the OPP, Ottawa Police Service incident commander Supt. Robert Bernier made clear that the Emergencies Act was not required for the police to do their job. Added to this, interim Ottawa police chief Steve Bell said that while the emergency powers were \u201chelpful,\u201d they were not \u201cneeded\u201d for the police, the OPP and the RCMP as part of their unified command to do their job. The NP Comment newsletter from columnist Colby Cosh and NP Comment editors tackles the important topics with boldness, verve and wit. Get NP Platformed delivered to your inbox weekdays by 4 p.m. ET. Email Address By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s obvious that emergency powers being helpful is not an adequate criterion to invoke them, and it\u2019s going to be very hard for the government to make a convincing case that there was no viable alternative except imposing an emergency. Presumably, the last straw for the government to grasp at is that they had lost faith in the ability of the Ottawa Police, something suggested in a text message exchange now made public between Carrique and RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, who apparently relayed the government\u2019s lack of faith to Carrique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leave the police aside \u2014 there\u2019s ample reason to have little faith in Ottawa\u2019s outgoing mayor, Jim Watson. One of his more outlandish suggestions after the protests had already been cleared was that protesters\u2019 vehicles that had been seized be sold and the proceeds used for policing costs. City solicitor David White, in a memo<\/a> that since been made public, shot down the idea, saying the city had no legal authority to permanently seize vehicles in such a manner. The fact that Watson, the mayor of a G7 capital, was apparently unaware of this and was proposing tactics that you would more usually find in a banana republic is flabbergasting and scary. Yet, this is of a piece with the federal government\u2019s freezing of the bank accounts not just of the protesters but those who gave them a few dollars of support online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Equally disturbing was some of Chief Bell\u2019s verbiage during his testimony to the commission of inquiry. He repeatedly referred to the protests as an \u201coccupation\u201d and the protesters as \u201coccupiers,\u201d terms widely used by critics and opponents of the protests. Such terms are clearly intended to delegitimize what was in fact a peaceful disobedience movement, of a type that Canada or Ottawa has not seen much of, but which is common around the world, including in our neighbour to the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Likewise, when challenged under cross examination by Convoy lawyer Brendan Miller, Bell, who repeatedly invoked \u201cviolence\u201d being done to city residents, conceded that his use of the term did not refer to actual violence as defined by the Criminal Code but a violence that was \u201cfelt\u201d by Ottawa residents. Again, such an assertion might possibly make sense coming from a psychiatrist or a psychological counsellor, but seems rather bizarre coming from the chief of police, whose day job is enforcing the law, not psychologizing what some residents may or may not have felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n If the rest of the hearings go like this, it\u2019s hard to believe an impartial commission could conclude otherwise than the government failed to make its case for the invocation of the Emergencies Act. However, the Liberals have their waiting saviour in the NDP and Jagmeet Singh. Singh has said, while the inquiry is in progress, that even if the commission finds fault with the government, his party won\u2019t pull the plug on Trudeau\u2019s minority, thus propping them up until their term expires in 2025. Rationalize it however Singh may, this is nothing other than the most cynical political calculus, since an early election is likely to prove ruinous to the veto that a party unlikely to ever form a government has over the current governing party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the ultimate analysis, the narrative tone was set from the outset by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and it continues to this day. Commenting on the actions of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Trudeau praised Ford for \u201cstanding with the people of Ottawa, of Ontario and of Canada, and not others.\u201d Unless the prime minister believes, contrary to the evidence, that members of the Freedom Convoy came from Mars, or at any rate from outside Canada, he\u2019s quite literally \u201cothering\u201d fellow Canadians. Trudeau is no longer even bothering with the pretence that he governs for all Canadians, and not just the minority (not even a plurality) who voted for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rupa Subramanya: Ludicrous to call the Freedom Convoy an occupation The protesters didn’t come from Mars, or from anywhere outside Canada Author of the article: Rupa Subramanya (National Post, Oct 28, 2022) \u00a0 Article content As the second full week … Continue reading ![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/nationalpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/0131-protest-12-scaled.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216\")
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