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Day 26 of Public Hearings, November 18, 2022 Public Inquiry for the Invocation of the Emergencies Act

Tia Riley

Day 26 of the Emergencies Act Public Inquiry testimony revealed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act on the advice of the Clerk of the Privy Council, and not based on a detailed threat assessment of the Freedom Convoy by law enforcement authorities.

Janice Charette, Clerk of the Privy Council, described the document Justin Trudeau signed to adopt the emergency powers. It was titled, Memorandum for the Prime Minister: Invoking the Emergencies Act to End Nation-Wide Protests and Blockades.

The document lays out the history of the Emergencies Act, the legal threshold required for the government to invoke it and Charette’s opinions as to why it was justified. The document was provided to the Prime Minister on February 14th.

MS. JANICE CHARETTE, Sworn
MS. NATHALIE DROUIN, Affirmed
Examination in-Chief by Ms. Shantona Chaudhury
Cross-Examination by Mr. Brendan Miller
Cross-Examination by Mr. Mitch McAdam
Cross-Examination by Mr. Sujit Choudhry
Cross-Examination by Mr. Alan Honner
Cross-Examination by Ms. Ewa Krajewska
Cross-Examination by Ms. Alyssa Tomkins
Cross-Examination by Ms. Christine Johnson
Cross-Examination by Ms. Jinan Kubursi
Cross-Examination by Mr. Thomas McRae
Cross-Examination by Ms. Stephanie Bowes

It’s shocking to watch Janice Charette, clerk of the privy council and the highest ranking bureaucrat in the federal government, rewriting the legal threshold for invoking the Emergencies Act as she’s testifying. Her definition does not match the statutory requirement of the act.

Privy Council Clerk Janice Charette provides a new definition of a national security threat after failing to meet thresholds under the CSIS Act.

“What was being seen in other parts of the world were protests with trucks with Canadian flags on them. The PM was getting questions.”

Privy Council Clerk Janice Charette says there is a legal threshold [as per the CSIS Act] to be met for invoking the EA, but that there is also a “policy context,” which they made up out of thin air.

“We were looking at a range of factors including trust in our institutions.”

Alan Honner from @TDF_Can
asks cabinet secretary Janice Charette which “external stakeholders” the federal gov’t relied on for information to support invoking the Emergencies Act.

Clerk of the Privy Council Janice Charette says cabinet was briefed “that there were tools and authorities in many organizations that had not been fully deployed” prior to invoking the Emergencies Act.

To justify use of EA, Janice Charette, Trudeau’s privy council clerk, finally said something I agree with. Economic security is correlated with the “ability to maintain & operate secure borders.”
Wait til she hears about Roxham Road and vaccine mandates.

Cabinet secretary Janice Charette recalls the Trudeau gov’ts mindset after introducing a cross-border vax mandate for truckers, telling the commission that “Canadians were kind of getting a bit fed up with the restrictions and measures.”

The Clerk of the Privy Council Janice Charette confirms that cabinet was made aware of concerns from CSIS that invoking the Emergencies Act could make things worse and inflame tensions between protesters and law enforcement.

“It was my view that we met the test of the definition in the CSIS Act” which justified invoking the Emergencies Act, cabinet secretary Janice Charette says, noting the Freedom Convoy was “getting worse and worse” after its arrival in Ottawa.

Cabinet secretary Janice Charette details how the gov’t had been hearing about plans being developed to end the Freedom Convoy and other protests, but by the 3rd weekend hadn’t seen any action to end the “horrific situation” in Ottawa.

The seizure of firearms at the Coutts blockade led to the finalizing of plans to invoke the never-before-used Emergencies Act, testifies Trudeau’s cabinet secretary, Janice Charette.

Describing the Coutts border blockade as “complex,” cabinet secretary Janice Charette says the weapons seized there “indicated a seriousness and a scale of the illegal activity” protesters were considering.

Cabinet secretary Janice Charette explains the apparent layers of threats the Freedom Convoy presented, noting the “incredibly violent rhetoric” posted online and remarking that the protest was “very well financed.”

Janice CHARETTE & Nathalie DROUIN (Privy Council Office)

“January 6…I hope I never see here.”

The Freedom Convoy and other protests amounted to “a national emergency, it was urgent, it was critical,” says cabinet secretary Janice Charette while testifying on the Trudeau government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act.

Cabinet secretary Janice Charette recalls the Trudeau gov’ts mindset after introducing a cross-border vax mandate for truckers, telling the commission that “Canadians were kind of getting a bit fed up with the restrictions and measures.”

Describing the Coutts border blockade as “complex,” cabinet secretary Janice Charette says the weapons seized there “indicated a seriousness and a scale of the illegal activity” protesters were considering.

DS JACQUELINE BOGDEN, Affirmed
MR. JEFFERY HUTCHINSON, Sworn
Examination in-Chief by Ms. Shantona Chaudhury
Cross-Examination by Mr. Alan Honner
Cross-Examination by Mr. Brendan Miller
Cross-Examination by Mr. David Migicovsky
Cross-Examination by Ms. Jennifer King
Cross-Examination by Mr. Mitch McAdam
Cross-Examination by Ms. Stephanie Bowes
Cross-Examination by Mr. Robert MacKinnon

Privy Council Deputy Clerk Nathalie Drouin explains that CSIS assessments on national security threats don’t really matter.

“A movement can represent a threat to the security of Canada without having individuals or groups in it that do meet the threshold of CSIS.”

Counter-protesters and Ottawa residents seeking injunctions against the Freedom Convoy were two reasons the Emergencies Act was invoked, says Justice Department official Nathalie Drouin. “That is, for us, a beginning of a symptom that something worse can happen.”

Despite the Freedom Convoy protest targeting the federal gov’t, Nathalie Drouin, deputy minister of the Dept. of Justice, says that on the ground, the RCMP “didn’t have jurisdiction to address the situation” prior to invoking the Emergencies Act.

“The impact on the economy was an impact on the people,” says Dept. of Justice Deputy Minister Nathalie Drouin as she discloses the Trudeau govt’s rationale for hastily invoking the never-before-used Emergencies Act.

What about lockdowns?

Nathalie DROUIN (Privy Council Office) testified again about the emergency act and its relation to section 2 of the CSIS act.

Chair: “are you coming to a question, or making a presentation?”

Nathalie DROUIN (Privy Council Office) explains to Convoy Lawyer Brendan MILLER the emergencies act and its relation to section 2 of the CSIS act.

“national security is not the result/assessment of one agency”

Janice Charette & Nathalie DROUIN (Privy Council Office)

Lawyer: “we don’t see that because it’s redacted.”

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