Trudeau defends the use of emergency powers to quash the 'Freedom Convoy' protests
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday defended the decision to use 'emergency powers' to cull thetruckers' "Freedom Convoy" demonstrations earlier this year which shook the country and his government.
"It wasn’t that they just wanted to be heard. They wanted to be obeyed. I am absolutely, absolutely serene and confident that I made the right choice in agreeing with the invocation," said Trudeau.
The PM was testifying in front of an independent public commission investigating the matter. His turn came at the end of a 31-day inquiry that seeks to determine if Trudeau was right in using the emergency powers.
Whenever a Canadian PM uses emergency powers, an independent inquiry is automatically ordered to look into the issue.
During the testifying, one of the lawyers representing the convoy organisers asked Trudeau if he was 'afraid' of his own citizens.
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"When did you and your government start to become so afraid of your own citizens?"
To which Trudeau replied, “I am not and we are not."
According to several media reports at the time, Trudeau and his family had left the home where they live in downtown Ottawa due to security concerns at the peak of the protests.
The protest initially started as a rally against the vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers. However, soon, the truckers changed their tune and the rally became a demonstration against the Canadian government's overreach during the pandemic as protesters took an anti-vaccination stance.
While the protests largely remained non-violent, Trudeau, not used to facing resistance in his backyard, invoked the Emergencies Act and became the first Canadian PM to do so.
The Act was adopted by the parliament in the mid-1980s to replace the earlier War measures Act which was invoked only three times in Canadian history.
(With inputs from agencies)
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