A serene Trudeau fails to justify using the emergencies act
Commission counsel and other intervening lawyers pointed out that by the morning of February 14th, the day the Emergencies Act was invoked, the situation at Coutts had been secured, the Ambassador Bridge had been re-opened, while in Ottawa, OPS, the OPP and RCMP were operating as a joint command, working on the plan that would finally clear the capital's streets later in the week.
Trudeau dismissed the OPS plan
that was shared with the federal government on Sunday, February 13th, the day
that both the Incident Response Group and cabinet agreed unanimously to bring
in the emergency provisions. "We kept hearing there was a plan. I would
recommend people take a look at that actual plan, which wasn't a plan at all."
He later conceded to counsel representing the Canadian Civil Liberties
Association that he hadn't seen the plan himself but was told about it.