Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in a recent CBC Radio interview defending his government’s response to the Freedom Convoy that tow truck drivers in Ottawa needed the Emergencies Act to move in on rigs within the city’s downtown core.
“We had a range of advice from Justice. From Public Safety. From various areas. But if you think about the specific tools, one of the concrete complaints was tow truck drivers weren’t willing to send in their rigs at the cost of being outed or harassed by these protesters,” said Trudeau.
When a reported asked the government was convinced they needed to invoke the Emergencies Act because of the need to get tow trucks in to the area, Trudeau said it was the only effective option left.
“Well, no.. I said, ‘Okay. What are the tools to get tow truck drivers to do that?’ And we saw that one of the only tools we had that was going to be effective in the timeframe necessary was to bring in the Emergencies Act.”
After saying repeatedly that law enforcement asked the government to use emergency powers to stop the Freedom convoy, the opposition has demanded that Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino quit for misleading Canadians.
BC Rise reported during the April 26 Special Committee Meetings on the use of Emergencies Act Measures, Marco Mendicino claimed that “no tow trucks were available“. However that claim was challenged by Senator Claude Carignan
Senator Claude Carignan said under section 134.1 of Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act “a police officer may order the removal of a vehicle that’s blocking traffic.” adding “Absolutely nothing was done under the Emergencies Act that police officers couldn’t have done before it was invoked.”
“Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act gives police officers authority to enter a vehicle, take its keys and have it towed and moved somewhere else. You didn’t need the Emergencies Act to do it” said Claude Carignan, adding “If towing was your problem, you should’ve used the army’s tow trucks or bought your own. You didn’t need to invoke the Emergencies Act in order to remove vehicles. It made no sense.”
Mendicino’s claims have been refuted by many levels of law enforcement including the RCMP and the Ottawa Police Service.
Rob Stewart knew about the call to the Prime Ministers Office by the president of the United States in regards to the blockade on the bridge. Senator Hon. Carignan asked what the United States wanted and Rob Stewart said before the Emergencies Act was invoked the United States offered American tow trucks as support to clear the blockade on the Ambassador Bridge.
Here is the transcript of the exchange
Hon. Claude Carignan: Right. The United States offered you tow trucks.
Mr. Rob Stewart: Yes.
Hon. Claude Carignan: Were they American tow trucks that came to tow Canadian vehicles away?
Mr. Rob Stewart: Yes.
Hon. Claude Carignan: Right. At that time, however, the Emergencies Act had not yet been invoked.
Mr. Rob Stewart: No.
While the Ambassador Bridge was cleared of blockades before the Emergencies Act there was obviously no extra special powers that were required by police to clear the blockade because the Emergencies Act was not invoked at the time.
When pressed about the extra tools and power they needed from the Emergencies Act, Rob Stewart said the Emergencies Act provided extra tools and power they needed to get “Canadian tow trucks and over 2,000 police officers.”
Senator responds there were a lot more police at the Summit of Americas without the Emergencies Act.
Hon. Claude Carignan responded “But that’s not a problem. You don’t need the Emergencies Act to get more police. Do you remember how many police you had at the Summit of the Americas? There were a lot more.”
Here is the transcript of the exchange
Hon. Claude Carignan:
What is the difference between the operation of reopening the Ambassador Bridge and the one that took place here to unfreeze Wellington Street, we might say, apart from the call from the President of the United States and the fact that it was an international bridge?
Mr. Rob Stewart:
You want to know the difference…
Hon. Claude Carignan:
Yes. Except for the use of the American tow trucks that came to tow the trucks, what were the different powers that made it possible to resolve the situation there and that could not be exercised on Wellington Street? In fact, I still can’t believe that Canada requested help from American tow trucks, but it seems to be true. I understand that there were barbecues and even a hot tub to be moved, on Wellington Street, and that might have called for different methods, in logistical terms.
What was different in the case of the Ambassador Bridge?
Mr. Rob Stewart:
I’m not an expert on police operations, I’m a public servant. I think the protest in Ottawa was on a larger scale and more powers and tools were needed to move all the people and trucks.
Hon. Claude Carignan:
What tools are you talking about?
Mr. Rob Stewart:
I’m talking about Canadian tow trucks and over 2,000 police officers.
Hon. Claude Carignan:
But that’s not a problem. You don’t need the Emergencies Act to get more police.
Do you remember how many police you had at the Summit of the Americas? There were a lot more.
Mr. Rob Stewart:
Here, the issue was assembling the police resources to execute the plan that had been made by Ottawa police. It called for moving a number of members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to Ottawa. It had to be done fairly quickly, and that is almost always a problem…
Hon. Claude Carignan:
Right, but the Emergencies Act didn’t offer anything extra…
Back to the CBC Radio interview, the prime minister also continued his vaccine supremacy hate speech rhetoric about unvaccinated Canadians during the interview, saying that millions of them must suffer the consequences of their health choices.
“It was their choice and nobody ever was going to force anyone into doing something they don’t want to do,” Trudeau said.
“But there are consequences when you don’t. You cannot choose to put at risk your co-workers. You cannot choose to put at risk the people sitting beside you on an airplane,”
A week before Trudeau left to globetrot around Europe and Africa donating hundreds of millions of Canadian taxpayer money, the prime minister tested positive for Covid-19 a second time despite being so called fully vaccinated.
The Liberals suspended federal vaccine mandates for domestic travel and federal workers, as pressure from the public, airline industry and the only federal opposition the Conservative Party of Canada was ramping up.
Trudeau also said during the interview he will continue to call out what he claims “unacceptable and hateful” views because they opposed his Covid mandates.
“No. I will always call out unacceptable rhetoric and hateful language wherever I see it,” Trudeau said in relation to him calling convoy protestors an “unacceptable and fringe minority.”
“Now, unfortunately, with … our modern social media and communications world, that was picked up and conflated and extended on. And I’m not going to start to say I was taken out of context, but my point was that there are people who are deliberately trying to stir up hate and intolerance and misinformation.”
