PM Justin Trudeau said that a big part of the inquiry into his use of the Emergencies Act is to justify it in the eyes of Canadians in case he wants to use it again in the future.
In answering a question regarding the confidentiality of deliberations that preceded the invocation, Trudeau said, “We want the people to rest assured that we made the right decisions in the right way — not just in this situation, but also for the ones in the years to come where [the Emergencies Act] could be used again.”
The indication that Trudeau may invoke the Emergencies Act again — an admission that comes only months after it was used for the first time in Canadian history — is shocking.
Firstly, though Trudeau eventually revoked his self-granted powers after it was voted for in the House by the NDP-Liberals, a Trudeau-appointed senator said that a growing movement was developing in the Senate to strike the invocation down: they did not believe it was justifiable.
“Just to point out that the day on which the declaration was ended by the government, there was already a movement among a significant number of senators and MPs, including some Liberals, to come up with the requisite signatures to begin the process of ending the declaration, and we didn’t end up having to do that,” senator Marilou McPhedran said.
She continues, saying that Trudeau caught wind of the plan and ended it himself — likely to avoid a PR disaster with potential political ramifications.
“The government was well aware that we were fairly far along in creating that joint letter that was required under this particular section, and instead, there was the decision just to suspend.”
Secondly, as reported by The Counter Signal, the judge chosen to lead the inquiry, justice Paul S. Rouleau, is a former Liberal donor, was appointed by Liberal PM Paul Martin, and has worked for the Liberal Party in the past.
These long-running ties to the Liberal Party likely make it impossible for Rouleau to be impartial, ensuring Trudeau gets his glowing review that creates the precedent to expand his power whenever he feels he needs to.
