Justin Trudeau’s strange defence of his protest crackdown 

On Friday, Justin Trudeau made his much-anticipated appearance before the Canadian Public Order Emergency Commission, where he gave testimony about his unprecedented decision to use the Emergencies Act last February to suspend civil liberties and suppress the trucker protests against vaccine mandates. Using the Act allowed Trudeau to freeze the personal and business accounts of the protestors without a court order, clear protestors in certain areas and force businesses (such as tow-trucks) to provide services against their will.  

But to the fascinated eyes of the Canadian public, it soon became apparent that although the well-coached prime minister was present before the commission in body this week, in spirit he was with Alice in Wonderland – a magical place where words mean what you want them to mean. 

The key task of the commission is to determine whether or not the protests last February met the definition of a public emergency for the purposes of the Act, to wit: ‘an emergency that arises from threats to the security of Canada (as defined in section 2 of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act)…’ that cannot be dealt with using ordinary powers.