Chris Warkentin, Member of Parliament for Grande Prairie-Mackenzie, reacted to the testimony by RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki at the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency. Commissioner Lucki confirmed that “Canada’s national police force never asked the Liberal government to invoke the Emergencies Act as existing tools and laws were already available to address the situation.”
“Conservatives have said that the threshold to invoke the unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act was never met and we have repeatedly called on the Liberal government to justify its actions – but they have failed to do so.”
“Last night, the Commissioner of the RCMP appeared before the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency and confirmed that Canada’s national police force never asked the Liberal government to invoke the Emergencies Act and that existing tools and laws were already available to address the situation.”
“When Justin Trudeau enacted the Emergencies Act, he claimed that it was to save the economy, but the border had already been cleared and the protesters had dissipated. He then changed his story and claimed that it was all about saving our democracy. However, Parliament continued to operate, legislation continued to be debated and votes continued to happen. He then changed his story again and said that the act was needed to remove the trucks. However, legal experts disputed that and said that authorities already existed to remove the trucks” Warkentin said.
“It is clear that the Liberal government did not have the evidence to meet the threshold justifying the Emergencies Act. The Liberal government chose to disregard the law and instead decided to give the Prime Minister and the Liberal government extraordinary powers by invoking the never before used Emergencies Act.”
“My Conservative colleagues and I will continue stand up to Justin Trudeau’s politics of division and stigmatization and push to get answers and hold the Trudeau Liberal government to account for their unprecedented and unnecessary overreach of power by invoking the Emergencies Act” said Warkentin.