CSIS director David Vigneault holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, July 16, 2020. Top intelligence officials are first on the witness list this week at the public inquiry scrutinizing Ottawa's use of the Emergencies Act last winter weeks into the "Freedom Convoy" protests. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA – Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair warned his cabinet colleagues to keep their rhetoric “temperate” when it came to the “Freedom Convoy” protest last winter.
Blair is the first federal minister to testify before the Public Order Emergency Commission that is probing the government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14.
Blair says he worried inflammatory language from the government could incite an inflammatory response, and that more people could join the protests that blockaded downtown Ottawa and several international border crossings.
Blair also says he attempted to arrange meetings with politicians from all three levels of government during the crisis, but representatives from Ontario would not attend.
Tamara Lich, one of the “Freedom Convoy” organizers, is among the spectators attending the hearing today.
The commissioner, Justice Paul Rouleau, told the gallery the public must remain respectful while ministers testify, and lawyers should keep their questions focused on the events at hand.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2022.
