Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino yesterday outlined details of the federal government’s engagement proposal with the Freedom Convoy protesters, which was ultimately denied by ministers two days before cabinet invoked the Emergencies Act.
“Engagement was always an option and I had articulated on a number of occasions that law enforcement should be the last resort,” Mendicino told the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) on Nov. 22.
“It was important for there to be some engagement with those who were participating in the convoy.”
Several days before the Emergencies Act was invoked on Feb. 14, then-deputy minister of Public Safety Rob Stewart sent an email to Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Insp. Marcel Beaudin on the topic of possible engagement with the Convoy protesters….