Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met the threshold required to invoke the Emergencies Act to end the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa and at other border crossings, a public body has found.
In his report, the head of the Public Order Emergency Commission says he came to his decision with reluctance.
Paul Rouleau, said the use of the Act, which gives wide spread powers to authorities, could have been avoided if it hadn’t been for a series of “policing failures” and all levels of government “failing to rise above politics.”
“Had various police forces and levels of government prepared for anticipated events of this type and acted differently in response to the situation, the emergency that Canada ultimately faced could likely have been avoided,” Rouleau said. “Unfortunately, it was not.”
Rouleau made 56 recommendations in his 2,000-page report, tabled in the House of Commons today. The decision comes after six weeks of testimony by convoy organizers, Trudeau, and his top advisors.