Grande Prairie — Mackenzie MP Chris Warkentin is not backing down after testimony by RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki at a Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency dismissed the Prime Minister’s claim that law enforcement asked for the Emergencies Act to be used during the convoy protests.
Warkentin feels that there are a lot of questions that went unanswered from the very beginning when the Prime Minister and Cabinet decided to use the Emergencies Act on February 14th.
“There’s a criterion that must be met in order for the government to legally use it. Based on the testimony that the commissioner gave the other day, I’m increasingly convinced that cabinet broke the law when they invoked the Emergencies Act. This is really unprecedented,” he explains.
“The government has said that time and time again, law enforcement asked them to pass the emergencies act. The commissioner made it very clear that she did not ask the government to go ahead with it. She felt authorities had all the tools they needed to clear roads during the blockades and protests.”
Warkentin is adamant that the Trudeau government is not out of the woods yet.
“The first fallout would be that all of the charges that were undertaken during that period of time and all the cover that the government had, including their ability to do things without court orders and seizing bank accounts could be found to be illegal. These hearings will continue. Not only the parliamentary hearings but also the public inquiry will happen,” he says.
“I’ve never seen this kind of response to something during my 16-year career. What I heard back from the Peace Country constituency was overwhelming, swift, and universally opposed to what the government was doing.”
