Tories MIA On The EA

By Hubie and Bertie

One of the requirements of Canada's Emergencies Act is a hearing afterward, to debrief on the use of the Act and to identify any problems with having invoked it. In other words, a formality. (We're pointing that out in case you hear anything different.)

Therefore, any elected official who was involved in, say, the invocation of the Emergencies Act to clear the streets of Ottawa last February should be ready and willing to testify, right? Well, no — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland appeared. But no Conservative politicians felt the sense of responsibility — or had the guts — to do likewise. Even though some of them, like Tory leader Pierre Poilievre, openly supported the Trumpy truckers at the time.

In an interesting echo of his father invoking the War Measures Act in Quebec in 1970, Justin said today that he was completely "serene" about his decision, because the Ottawa police, the RCMP and the Ontario provincial police had no plan to deal with the crisis. (Gee, the premier of Ontario is a Tory. Like his counterparts at the federal level, he apparently wanted the truckers to become "Trudeau's problem.")

Oh, and by the way, Trudeau kicked off his testimony in French, because there's been the usual amount of grousing that the hearing has been dominated by English. Justin is perfectly bilingual, as we all know. Take that, opposition.

Trudeau said that the moment of truth occurred late in the afternoon of February 14, when he was advised by the Clerk of the Privy Council to invoke the Act. He said that he asked himself, "What if the worst had happened in those following days? What if someone had gotten hurt? What if a police officer had been put in a hospital? What if, when I had an opportunity to do something, I had waited?"

We're very glad Trudeau did not wait. Ottawa was under siege, and border crossings in both Ontario and Alberta were blocked, with both the US and Canadian economies losing zillions as a result. Somebody had to be the adult in the room. Like his dad, Justin decided to be that person. The final EA report is due in February, and we'll see. In the meantime, we cats PURR.