The night before the Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act to deal with the truckers’ “Freedom Convoy” protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security adviser, Jody Thomas, told cabinet members that “there was potential for a breakthrough” in negotiations with the protesters.
This was revealed in newly released documents on how the cabinet weighed in on a response to the three-week protest in Ottawa’s downtown core, in place since late January seeking an end to federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions, the Toronto Star report on Aug. 11.
The documents were released after civil liberties groups requested that the attorney general disclose documents relating to the government’s decision to invoke the act. Heavily redacted and previously labelled as “secret,” the documents include minutes from three meetings of the Incident Response Group, a committee of ministers and senior officials chaired by Trudeau. The documents show that the committee had been discussing the possibility of invoking the act as early as Feb. 10. four days before Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act….