Feds should use emergency powers to end Ottawa occupation: expert

The federal government should invoke its powers under the Emergencies Act to bring the occupation of downtown Ottawa to an end, a leading national security expert says.

“I think the time is long past for buck-passing,” said Wesley Wark, a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa’s graduate school of public and international affairs. “I think the federal government has to finally step up, as unwilling as they might be.”

The ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest is stretching into its third week of taking over downtown Ottawa’s streets, disturbing residents and forcing local businesses to close.

Ottawa’s police chief has pleaded for more resources to help, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday he wasn’t convinced the city had exhausted its tools and resources.

Wark said it’s time for the jurisdictional back-and-forth to end, and the federal government, which has been “missing in action,” needs to take charge.

“The Ottawa police just is not able or willing or some combination of both to do their job,” he told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Andrew Pinsent. “I think the time has long past where the federal government has to take responsibility for dealing with this.

“I think from a political optics perspective, they just don’t want to take responsibly for dealing with this crisis because they can’t be sure how exactly it will end,” he said. But the federal government has the legal and jurisdictional authority, as well as the resources, to bring the protest to an end.

The Emergencies Act, passed in 1988 to replace the controversial War Measures Act, has never been used. Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said Sunday the government is prepared to invoke the act, but also said police need to “do their job.”

On Monday, Trudeau is consulting premiers about the federal government’s plans to invoke the act.

Wark said under the act’s Public Order Emergency section, the government can prevent a public assembly, secure a protected place, prevent travel to and from such a place and impose fines and prison time.

The government could also institute the RCMP as the lead police force alongside Ottawa police and the OPP. Right now, the Ottawa police is the lead, although they set up a new ‘command centre’ over the weekend with the RCMP and OPP.

The federal government also has national security and intelligence resources to help better understand the protest, its leaders, track its movements and planning, which “haven’t been done well to date,” Wark said.

And the federal government could also deploy the military, though Wark stressed it would be in a supportive role with tactical knowledge, logistics and heavy machinery to help move the trucks out.

 “I don’t think we’re talking about an Oka-style standoff where you have armed military confrontation directly protesters,” he said. “What you have would be the military essentially in the background, lending support of various kinds.”

A request from Ottawa’s police chief for 1,800 more police personnel has yet to be fulfilled. Wark said residents shouldn’t have to wait for those officers to arrive.

“I don’t think the citizens of Ottawa should be left waiting for the weeks it would take to bring all of these police officers from who knows where into the front lines to combat this protest,” he said.

It’s time, he said, for the government to “bring this deeply embarrassing antidemocratic protest to an end before Canadians start to lose all faith in the idea that we have a federal government that can act.”

In order to invoke the Emergencies Act, the prime minister would have to consult with the premiers and present an explanation to both the House of Commons and Senate within seven days.