Emergencies Act Inquiry uncovers government failure at every level

National Post [Canada] ^ | Oct. 17, 2022 | John Ivison

[canuck_conservative]

Residents and businesses were casualties of almost encyclopedic misjudgments by police, the city, the province and the federal government....

After four days, there were no terrorist incidents, no deaths, no injuries and no arrests. “If they’d left after that weekend, it would have been an insignificant event,” he said. “We’d have cleaned up the city and moved on.”

However, the fateful decision by Ottawa Police Service (OPS) to allow trucks on to Parliament Hill, and to let protestors build what Kanellakos called a “logistical compound” at the city-owned parking lot next to a baseball stadium, ended any hopes of a swift conclusion to the protest....

By that stage, though, the protesters were entrenched and OPS did not have the resources to remove them, even if it had wanted to.

Neither was the city enforcing its own by-laws by ticketing protesters or towing their vehicles, for fear that might incite them.

Kanellakos said the city owned two heavy-duty tow-trucks but that “staff were very reluctant to participate.” The city reached out for help to the federal and provincial governments but was turned down, he said....

In calls with federal ministers Bill Blair and Marco Mendicino, Watson said he wanted the provincial transportation ministry to put pressure on insurance companies underwriting the big rigs but had received a “disappointing answer” from the province, even though they are “always setting up blitzes on the 400 series highways to check tires.”...

Watson expressed his frustration in a call with the feds. “The premier is telling me: ‘Anything you want,’ but then there is silence,” he said....

[canuck_conservative]

(read the full article at the site, there's more detail there about the comedy of errors that went on behind the scenes)

For our American & foreign FRiends ... we all saw last February's trucker convoy and the Canadian Government's harsh response to it, using the "Emergencies Act" ... but you may not know that that legislation requires the Govt. to hold a public enquiry afterwards into its use ... and that's happening now

by law, it's under the control of a retired judge, out of the Liberals' hands ... naturally, the Govt. is trying to portray the protest as an "extreme event" that couldn't be dealt with any other way

the Provinces (who are witnesses at this inquiry) pushed back on that suggestion, correctly pointing out that the protests at the Alberta-Montana border and the Ambassador Bridge were cleared by police using only existing laws

by law, the inquiry has to be finished by next spring, but that's still a lot of time for more juicy details about the Liberals' gross incompetence, lying, and overreach to be exposed ... Justin & his crew didn't escape responsibility yet

[DannyTN]

The Emergencies Act created an Emergency.

Well done!