Madam Speaker, it is my honour to rise on behalf of the Conservative members of the committee to offer this supplemental opinion.
This January, the Federal Court made a landmark ruling finding that the Prime Minister's Liberal government illegally invoked the Emergencies Act and used it to violate Canadians' most essential constitutional rights to freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression. The Conservatives believe that the Liberals must answer for the government's reckless abandonment of the law and the most basic freedoms of all Canadians.
That is why the Conservatives wanted to call several Liberal ministers before our committee to account for their decisions, as well as ordering them to return over the legal opinion that the government claimed to rely upon for its illegal and unconstitutional decisions. Regrettably, efforts for accountability over one of the most serious decisions any government could ever make were frequently resisted by our Liberal colleagues, backed by independent Senators, so that we still have not been able to get to the truth at committee. We fear this could be a foreboding signal of what is to come given our committee's final report.
The decision to invoke the Emergencies Act was unnecessary from the start. The Prime Minister caused this crisis by dividing people. He proceeded to violate the charter and illegally suppress Canadian citizens. Since then, the government has desperately tried to defend its actions, lying to the public by saying that the police asked the government to invoke the act, something the RCMP and the Ottawa police have both denied.
If a Conservative government is elected, we will ensure that the Emergencies Act can never again be used to silence political opposition, because common-sense Conservatives will protect the charter rights of Canadians and unite our country and our people for hope and freedom.