The history-making inquiry into the federal authorities’s use of emergency powers to quell the convoy protest final winter is starting to take form forward of its begin later this week.
The Public Order Emergency Commission will start public hearings on Thursday into the circumstances across the federal authorities’s choice to invoke the Emergencies Act. It is anticipated to hear from 65 witnesses throughout its factual stage, together with protest individuals, legislation enforcement representatives, cupboard ministers, and officers with provincial and municipal governments, in addition to companies and organizations impacted by the protests.
On Tuesday, the fee launched an inventory of anticipated witnesses. It consists of:
1. Victoria De La Ronde
2. Zexi Li
3. Nathalie Carrier
4. Kevin McHale
5. Catherine McKenney (City of Ottawa)
6. Mathieu Fleury (City of Ottawa)
7. Steve Kanellakos (City of Ottawa)
8. Serge Arpin (City of Ottawa)
9. Jim Watson (City of Ottawa)
10. Diane Deans (City of Ottawa)
11. Patricia Ferguson (Ottawa Police Service)
12. Craig Abrams (Ontario Provincial Police)
13. Carson Pardy (Ontario Provincial Police
14. Pat Morris (Ontario Provincial Police)
15. Steve Bell (Ottawa Police Service)
16. Russell Lucas (Ottawa Police Service)
17. Marcel Beaudin (Ontario Provincial Police)
18. Robert Drummond (Ottawa Police Service)
19. Robert Bernier (Ottawa Police Service)
20. Thomas Carrique (Ontario Provincial Police)
21. Peter Sloly (former Ottawa police chief)
22. Brigitte Belton
23. James Bauder
24. Steeve Charland
25. Patrick King
26. Benjamin Dichter
27. Tom Marazzo
28. Chris Barber
29. Tamara Lich
30. Drew Dilkens (City of Windsor)
31. Dana Earley (Ontario Provincial Police)
32. Jason Crowley (Windsor Police Service)
33. Jim Willett (Village of Coutts)
34. Marco Van Huigenbos
35. Marlin Degrand (Alberta)
36. Mario Di Tommaso (Ontario)
37. Ian Freeman (Ontario)
38. Rob Stewart (Public Safety Canada)
39. (*65*) Rochon (Public Safety Canada)
40. David Vigneault (Canadian Security Intelligence Service)
41. Michelle Tessier (Canadian Security Intelligence Service)
42. Marie-Hèlene Chayer (Integrated Threat Assessment Centre)
43. Deputy Commissioner Michael Duheme (RCMP)
44. RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki
45. Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki (RCMP)
46. John Ossowski (former president of Canada Border Services Agency)
47. Michael Keenan (Transport Canada)
48. Christian Dea (Transport Canada)
49. Michael Sabia (Department of Finance)
50. Rhys Mendes (Department of Finance)
51. Isabelle Jacques (Department of Finance)
52. Cindy Termorhuizen (Global Affairs Canada)
53. Joe Comartin (Global Affairs Canada)
54. Jody Thomas (Privy Council Office)
55. Jacquie Bogden (Privy Council Office)
56. Janice Charette (Privy Council Office)
57. Nathalie Drouin (Privy Council Office)
58. Defence Minister Anita Anand
59. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino
60. Minister of Emergency Preparedness and President of the King’s Privy Council Bill Blair
61. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
62. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra
63. Justice Minister David Lametti
64. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister (*65*) LeBlanc
65. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland
Former Ontario Superior Court justice Paul Rouleau has been chosen to lead the inquiry. He has been tasked with analyzing the circumstances main up to the invocation of the Emergencies Act — a call that continues to be politically divisive eight months later.
The act gave the federal government new powers to deal with the anti-vaccine mandate protesters that blocked important arteries round Parliament Hill with parked vans and different automobiles for almost a month.
Rouleau additionally has been directed via an order-in-council to provide “classes realized” concerning the use of the act and to touch upon the “appropriateness and effectiveness of the measures taken.”
Commission to kick off with doc dump
According to a press release from the fee, Rouleau will start the general public hearings with a gap assertion on Oct. 13, adopted by displays and overview experiences by the fee’s attorneys.
The fee mentioned the overview experiences will embody summaries of preliminary information, which can be positioned into proof.
At Rouleau’s request, the Liberal authorities has waived cupboard confidence on paperwork associated to its invocation of the act. It’s solely the fourth time in Canada’s historical past {that a} public inquiry has been given entry to such high-level paperwork.
It is just not clear but how — and if — these delicate paperwork can be made public.
“The fee is about to embark on the general public part of the method of discovering solutions to the questions assigned to it by Parliament below the Emergencies Act. This important part will make clear the occasions that led to the declaration of the general public order emergency and totally discover the explanations superior for the declaration,” Rouleau mentioned in a press release Tuesday.
“I’m assured that, with the co-operation of all of the events, the hearings will present a good and thorough course of for the presentation of the proof required for the fee to have the option to give the general public the solutions to which it’s entitled.”
Hearings will happen at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa on Wellington Street, not removed from the center of the protests.
The first part of the fee will meet for six weeks and is scheduled to wrap on Nov. 25. The subsequent week the fee will start a coverage stage the place it hosts roundtables with coverage specialists.
Rouleau’s ultimate report is due Feb. 6.