Canada - February 2023

Pursuant to the Emergencies Act of 1988, the Government of Canada established the Public Order Emergency Commission to carry out an inquiry into the use of emergency powers to end the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests of February 2022. The inquiry concluded that the use of emergency powers by Prime Minister Trudeau’s government was justified, as the high threshold needed to invoke the Emergencies Act had been met. The Commission’s report was presented on 17 February, and in it, Justice Paul Rouleau, Head of the Commission, rejected claims that protests were peaceful. He was nevertheless also critical of some of the measures taken by the government, such as the freezing of accounts of those participating in the convoy and the absence of a delisting mechanism for frozen accounts. The report was also critical of the lack of engagement of the Ontario government and Prime Minister Trudeau’s comments characterizing the convoy protesters as a fringe minority. The report includes recommendations to federal, province and city authorities, and was submitted to the House of Commons. 

Sources: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, British Broadcasting Corporation