Dear Readers,
The “Freedom Convoy” is back from the dead. Not in the form of Freedom Convoy 2.0, but in the much-anticipated report of the Public Order Emergency Commission.
Justice Rouleau will deliver a statement to be live-streamed on the Commission’s website and it is anticipated that the report will be available in electronic form around noon on Friday, February 17.
If you are anticipating that the Commission report will deliver a yes or no verdict on the lawfulness of the invocation of the Emergencies Act then you will be disappointed. Any such verdict will come, if it does, from the Federal Court in response to a set of lawsuits brought by civil-liberties organizations.
What Justice Rouleau will deliver is a first draft of the history of the Freedom Convoy events. That’s a big deal. Maybe the Rouleau report will even rival the 1946 report of the Gouzenko Royal Commission looking into Soviet espionage as a best-seller! (Or maybe not).
The mandate for the report comes from two masters.
One is Parliament, through the legislation that established the Emergencies Act back in 1988. The legislation set the task of an inquiry to be an examination of the “circumstances that led to the declaration being issued and the measures taken for dealing with the emergency.”
s63(1) of the Emergencies Act, https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-4.5/page-4.html
The other master is the Order in Council provided by the Government to the Inquiry, which is more expansive. It incorporates the language of the legislation but also directs the Commissioner to report on a set of specific issues:
the evolution and goals of the convoy and blockades, their leadership, organization and participants
the impact of domestic and foreign funding
the impact, role and sources of misinformation and disinformation
the impact of the blockades, including their economic impact
the efforts of police and other responders prior to and after the declaration
Justice Rouleau is also directed to set out findings and lessons-learned on the use of the Emergencies Act and to make recommendations on modernization of the act “as well as on areas for further study or review.”
https://publicorderemergencycommission.ca/files/documents/Order-in-Council-Décret-2022-0392.pdf
Where will the Report’s centre of gravity rest? We will only know on Friday. The good justice kept his cards pretty close to his chest during weeks of public testimony last Fall.
But in addition to all the known subject headings, watch out for “areas for further study or review.” The biggest surprises may be there.
In addition to my own commentary, I hope to turn this space over to guest experts to provide their reflections on the Public Order Emergency Commission.
More to come…