The Public Order Emergency Commission's Commissioner Paul Rouleau has concluded that the "very high threshold" for the invocation of the Emergency Act was met.
On February 14, 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to end the protests that overtook downtown Ottawa's streets for nearly a month.
While Rouleau concluded several actions could have been taken before that date to avoid the necessity of the invocation, by the time the act was invoked, the situation in Ottawa and across the country had evolved.
"Cabinet had reasonable grounds to believe that there existed a national emergency arising from threats to the security of Canada that necessitated the taking of special temporary measures," said Rouleau.
Rouleau stated this conclusion was not an easy one.
“I do not consider the factual basis for it to be overwhelming. Reasonable and informed people could reach a different conclusion from the one I have arrived at," said Rouleau.
While reviewing evidence from the inquiry, Rouleau did not find any instances of misconduct from any of the parties involved.
“Although I have found that certain institutions and their representatives’ conduct was, at times, ill-advised or deficient, it did not rise to the level of misconduct. Put simply, the evidence did not support such findings on issues relevant to my mandate,” Rouleau wrote in his findings.
Rouleau did recognize the Ontario government’s lack of engagement in a section titled “Ontario’s absence”. He found the Ontario government failed to engage in the protests while they were limited to Ottawa. This led to communication failure among the parties.
“The Province of Ontario’s refusal to participate in the tripartite meetings, which were intended to have participation from municipal, provincial, and federal government representatives, contributed to these messaging failures,” said Rouleau.
The final report from the commission also includes 56 recommendations relating to policing, federal intelligence collection, and critical trade infrastructure.
One of the recommendations advises the federal government to examine the scope of police powers concerning protest activities. The report recommends that policing protocols should be established to “articulate the extent to which the police may lawfully restrict access to an area within or outside a city, or at or adjacent to a border crossing, by protesters and-or certain types of vehicles; and criteria for the exercise of such restrictions that remain compatible with the lawful rights under the Charter to protest and peacefully assemble.”
The report also recommends the federal government consult with provincial governments and affected municipalities to identify critical trade transportation corridors and infrastructure and develop protocols to protect them and respond to interference with them.
This was one of the many requests Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens had following the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge.
The final report can be found here.