Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to the minister and the witnesses for being here. We are grateful that they could quickly make themselves available.
Mr. Minister, on February 14, the 18th day of the siege of Ottawa, your government indicated that it would be invoking the Emergencies Act. The next day, February 15, Quebec's National Assembly unanimously passed a motion asking your government to not enforce the act on Quebec territory. In Quebec, there was no major problem that would justify such enforcement, nor was there anywhere else in the country. The blockades in Windsor, Emerson and Coutts were dismantled in large part by local police forces. The Prime Minister even said that the emergency measures would be geographically targeted. Essentially, the only crisis was in Ottawa. But when we saw the order, we realized that the act would apply everywhere in Canada.
Why did you not respect the will of Quebec, and actually of other provinces that made the same request?
I will also add that believing that there might be another demonstration does not seem to me to be a valid reason for invoking the act.