On the final day of the Public Order Emergency Commission, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unironically said he invoked the Emergencies Act to prevent a grandmother from being run over by a truck — apparently forgetting that mounted police acting under powers granted by the act trampled an elderly lady.
“How would I explain it to the family of a police officer that was killed, or a grandmother who got run over trying to stop a truck, or a protestor who was killed if I hadn’t used the tools?” Trudeau asked.
“If one of the protestors — if one of the occupiers had been killed in a violent clash with someone else? Getting the situation under control and protecting the safety of all Canadians is a priority,” he said.
A murmur was heard in the crowd immediately after Trudeau responded. His Emergencies Act infamously resulted in a grandmother being trampled by a police officer on a horse.
The lawyer asked Trudeau whether he thinks invocation of the Emergencies Act would set a precedent for future prime ministers to invoke the act without proper justification.
“Do you worry about the precedent this sets, that by doing this, you’ve unleashed the Kraken?” the Commission lawyer asked.
Trudeau said he has faith in Canadians and institutions that this wouldn’t happen.
The Commission is investigating whether the Freedom Convoy protest met the threshold to invoke the Emergencies Act.
The CSIS definition of national emergency was not met according to official records, but CSIS director David Vigneault said that he told Trudeau he supported the use of the act.
On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland claimed she froze the bank accounts of ordinary Canadians opposed to draconian Liberal government COVID-19 mandates to avoid “blood on the face of a child.”
