Declaration of Emergency Committee on April 26th, 2022

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

No, I had one final point.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

All right.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

On the issue of integrity, character and honesty, Canadians have a right to know whether or not our head of government has been compromised because of his involvement in this particular matter. Therefore, there has been an erosion of trust in the federal government with respect to the invocation of this act.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Pardon me, Mr. Brock, but I maintain my decision that this series of questions is not directly related to the matter before us.

You nevertheless have two and a half minutes left. Please continue…

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Chair, I believe his speaking time is up.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

I stopped the clock during the argument over Mr. Virani's objection. There were exactly 2 minutes and 42 seconds left. I'm going to let Mr. Brock continue provided he doesn't go off topic. The matter of an accusation of fraud against the Prime Minister may be relevant in the House but not in our committee.

Thank you, Mr. Brock.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Thank you.

Now I'll move on to you, Minister. I'm not going to accuse you of anything.

Minister, with the time I have available, I'll try to get a couple of questions in. You would agree with me that the government was not caught by surprise by the arrival of—your words—“the so-called 'freedom convoy'”. In fact, it had been heavily publicized in social media. The organizers of the convoy took appropriate steps to liaise with the Ottawa Police Service, the parliamentary precinct service, the mayor and city council to announce their arrival. They were given permission to park on Wellington and adjacent streets.

You would agree with me that it started as a peaceful protest. Protests are so vigorously protected by our charter in paragraph 2(c), the freedom of assembly. Our democracy gives Canadians the right to voice their opinion with respect to any government policy. What started off as a peaceful protest became an illegal protest, in the words of the government.

The focus on my question is this: What were the circumstances that caused the federal government to determine that what existed outside of West Block constituted an illegal protest, and at what point in time did they happen?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I would disagree with you, Mr. Brock, on a number of the premises underlying your question.

First, from the outset, as I stated in my introductory remarks, the frame of leadership of this so-called “freedom convoy” called for the overthrow of the government. They called for the Governor General to unilaterally remove the Prime Minister from office if—

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Let me stop you right there.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I want to underline that I disagree.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

That's fair.

Let me stop you right there, because that was the second line of questioning. We all know that there is a legal threshold before the invocation of the act was warranted. You and several other senior ministers, as well as the Prime Minister, deemed this to be a threat to public safety. Quite often you would refer in the House to the memorandum of understanding or the manifesto. You'd agree with me, sir, that there was no language in the manifesto—

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Pardon me for interrupting, Mr. Brock, but your speaking time is up.

I now give the floor to Mr. Naqvi for four minutes.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Minister, thank you for being here. Let me ask you a couple of questions just to get some foundational things out of the way.

As the Minister of Public Safety, do you have the authority to give police instructions on operational matters?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

As a matter of general principle, no, we do not.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Do you have the authority to instruct police on use of force matters?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

No, we do not.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Are you aware of that authority being extended to any elected representatives at any order of government in Canada?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

No.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I want to speak about what was happening in Ottawa. I am from Ottawa, so it's close to my heart.

You'll recall that a big part of downtown Ottawa was completely shut down with hundreds of big rigs, trucks, vans and cars blockading streets.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Of course I do. I am a resident of Ottawa from Sunday night until Friday evening all sitting weeks.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

That lasted for about 24 days.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Yes.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

You'll also recall there was noise, honking at all hours, until private citizens sought an injunction and stopped it temporarily.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Yes. That was the tip of the iceberg, but yes.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Do you also recall reports of fireworks being set off in the middle of the night on downtown streets where people live?