Declaration of Emergency Committee on June 14th, 2022

[Vernon White]

Thank you very much.

I'll quickly repeat my previous question that had no time for a response.

The province also invoked their emergency act. Can you tell us what was missing from their legislation that required the invocation of the federal legislation?

Thank you very much.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Thanks for repeating that question.

You asked me also, Senator, what are the lessons going forward for what should be in provincial legislation. I think that's for the province to figure out, but we do have a good working relationship with the province. One of the lessons I took from this, which we have acted on already, is the need to modernize and to bring into the 21st century the authorities of FINTRAC. That is something that is a lesson learned and something we have acted on already.

[Vernon White]

Thank you for that. To be fair though, our job is to make recommendations, I would hope, at the end. Those recommendations could be for the city, the province, and whether or not they accept them is a different story.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Thank you, Senator White.

Lastly, we'll move to Senator Carignan.

[Claude Carignan]

Minister, you said you didn't know if the police had advised invoking the Emergencies Act, that no one ever told you. You made a decision without requesting the opinion or advice of the police.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

My duty in the discussions I had with my colleagues was to convey information and express our concerns about the economy.

[Claude Carignan]

I understand that. I've sat in cabinet as well.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

That's the issue I discussed.

[Claude Carignan]

I know how it works because I've sat in cabinet. You made a decision and you voted on it. You decided to invoke the Emergencies Act without knowing the police's position on that decision.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

The Minister of Justice had a duty to inform us of the powers we had at our disposal. An important point that we haven't discussed is the fact that the Minister of Justice informed us about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Senator Carignan, I apologize, but your time is up. I've been generous.

[Claude Carignan]

Your apologies should be directed to the public, not to me.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Thank you.

Let me express, on behalf of the committee, our thanks to Minister Freeland for joining us.

Colleagues, we'll take a break for a few minutes as we move to Minister Blair.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

The meeting is resumed.

We have with us today until 9:30, the honourable Bill Blair, Minister of Emergency Preparedness. He is joined by his official, Jacqueline Bogden, deputy secretary to the cabinet, emergency preparedness and COVID recovery.

Welcome, Minister. You have five minutes for opening remarks. The floor is yours.

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Minister of Emergency Preparedness]

Thank you very much, Senator.

First of all, let me begin by expressing my very sincere thanks to this committee for the invitation and the opportunity to speak before you today.

Madam Chair, the Emergencies Act invocation on February 14 was the first use of this statute since it was created in law in 1988. The decision to invoke the Emergencies Act was a significant decision for any government to make and, as such, it deserves close examination and scrutiny. I am grateful for the hard work of this committee to perform that important role on behalf of all Canadians.

The responsibility for maintaining public order in Canada, enforcing our existing municipal bylaws, provincial statutes and the Criminal Code is the responsibility of the police of jurisdiction. They also have the important responsibility of upholding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to facilitate lawful, peaceful protest. In Ontario, these authorities and that responsibility are well defined within the Ontario Police Services Act. For the use of this committee—I know, Madam Chair, that this is something you're very familiar with—I've brought, in both official languages, a copy of the Ontario Police Services Act, which I hope will be helpful to this committee.

As the events of the convoy and the protests unfolded, initially with rolling convoys across Canada and then the establishment of an encampment of protesters in the City of Ottawa, we saw the fortification of that encampment with heavy trucks and trailers. What we then witnessed were targeted blockades, which effectively blocked vital trade corridors and cut off the movements of goods and essential services to our manufacturing sector and the movement of essential goods and services throughout the country. Those blockades, and the impact of those border blockades in particular, were particularly impactful.

I know previous witnesses have articulated for this committee what some of those impacts were. I have also received correspondence from my ministerial colleagues in Alberta, from the premier in Manitoba and from others across the country, articulating some of the huge challenges that those blockades represented and the threat to the economic security of those provincial jurisdictions and municipalities across the country. We've also had extensive reports from the private sector in manufacturing about the enormous impact those blockades were having.

Throughout the course of this event, we observed in many jurisdictions—including right here in Ottawa—that law enforcement was unable to resolve the serious and harmful behaviours that were taking place in a timely and effective way. For example, the police were unable to remove the heavy trucks that were blocking many of the streets in Ottawa and on municipal and provincial roadways in Ottawa, Windsor, Emerson in Manitoba, Coutts in Alberta and on the Pacific Highway in British Columbia.

In order to determine why the police were having this difficulty, I had conversations and consulted directly with the police leadership and the mayor here in Ottawa, for example. I asked the chief of police in Ottawa if he could advise me why they were unable to tag and tow the vehicles. In my experience—I spent many years in policing—the tagging and towing of those vehicles seemed like a logical step. However, the chief advised me, and I accepted his explanation, that he did not believe it could be done without provoking violence, nor could it not be done safely by his bylaw enforcement officers. I then spoke to him about towing the vehicles off the street, and he advised me that notwithstanding the fact they had a number of service contracts with towing companies in the national capital region, none of those towing companies were willing to come to remove those vehicles. Chief Sloly's advice was that they were concerned for their safety or for their ongoing business relationship with the trucking industry. In any event, they would not respond.

I heard similar information, by the way, in my conversations with Minister McIver in Alberta, who identified that they were unable to secure tow trucks to remove the vehicles from the Coutts highway. He asked, and we examined, whether or not there were any other towing vehicles that were available to the Canadian government. We examined what was available to the Canadian Armed Forces, for example, and were advised that they did not have appropriate vehicles for that purpose and they were unable to assist. That problem persisted.

I also had conversations with the commissioner of the RCMP about the challenges the RCMP were facing in the removal of those blockades on the highway in Coutts. I asked why the Alberta Traffic Safety Act wasn't being utilized to direct traffic off those roadways or to remove the vehicles that were blockading. I was advised by the commissioner that they had information about and were conducting an investigation into the presence of firearms at that particular blockade. She was, quite understandably, very concerned about the safety of her officers engaging in that activity, but ultimately I was advised that until they were able to—subsequently through investigation—make arrests and seize those weapons that those circumstances did not allow them to use their authorities as existed under municipal, provincial and federal statutes.

As a consequence, those blockades persisted for a considerable period of time, over two weeks in Alberta and over seven days in Windsor. Throughout those occupations, we were also advised that there was a strong likelihood of further blockades at points of entry like the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia, the Pacific Highway in Surrey or the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie. There was strong information being received from our officials, that was advising of the intent of these blockades to return to places that they had previously blocked or to go to new points of entry because it had been a very effective tactic.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Minister, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to cut you off there so we can get to questions. Thank you very much.

We'll start with Mr. Motz. This is the five-minute round.

Mr. Motz.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here.

Minister, you have just explained to us that you had extensive contact with law enforcement officials leading up to the invocation of the Emergencies Act and yet when my colleague Mr. Fortin asked the previous witness, Minister Freeland, about speaking to the police, she said that it would be very inappropriate for a cabinet minister to do so.

Which is it?

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

To be very clear, I was meeting on a regular basis—I'd established a table of consultations with the three levels of government, a tripartite table, with the City of Ottawa, including the mayor—with our provincial counterparts and with my officials. It was during a meeting with the mayor of Ottawa to talk about how we could assist the City of Ottawa to restore order, peace and safety to the city of Ottawa that I had a conversation with his chief of police.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

I take it then that Minister Freeland was mistaken in her statement.

Let me get to another question for you, sir.

Your government will undoubtedly assert cabinet confidences over the documents that we've asked for, but as the president of the Queen's Privy Council, will you release these confidences of the Queen's Privy Council?

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Can you be specific on what confidence you're referring to, sir?

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

We're talking about the documents that we've asked for. This committee, as you know, has asked for all of the documents used to make the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act. We've had ministers here before, ministers Lametti and Mendicino, who have made it very clear that they're invoking lawyer-client privilege as well as cabinet confidence with respect to the release of that information.

I'm asking you, as president of the Privy Council, whether you would consider releasing those confidences.

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Mr. Motz, I believe there are processes in place to determine what documents should be and are appropriately released. There are issues of lawyer-client privileges, for example. Those are areas that are well understood and respected, and I am aware that the Canada Evidence Act, in section 38, also describes quite clearly how it would be determined whether information related to other confidences could be made available.

I am respectful of those processes, Mr. Motz, and I respect the law.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Thank you very much.

Minister, when you were the chief of the Toronto Police Service during 2010, you had nearly 20,000 extra police officers at your disposal during that G20 summit. That support was provided to you—funded and organized—by the federal government.

Here in Ottawa, we had former police chief Sloly, who testified at committee, and we heard in the media that he was asking the federal government for just 1,800 officers, about a tenth of what was provided to you in Toronto.

Why didn't you focus on getting him those resources instead of conjuring up unprecedented use of extraordinary powers in the Emergencies Act?

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Just to be very clear, the planning for the G20 in Toronto was a process that was actually led by the RCMP and that took place over several months at considerable expense to the federal government at that time. All of those officers that you quoted—not all of them, frankly—were available for public order in Toronto, but that was a planned event as opposed to this spontaneous disruption of public order in Ottawa.

By the way, Mr. Motz, I think you're aware that there were officers—

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

No, I would disagree with that.

You do know that this was planned weeks in advance. The Ottawa Police Service and officials of Ottawa were all involved in planning where they should be and where they should park. You were aware of that, right?