Hello,
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is consulting Canada’s premiers on triggering the Emergencies Act as the federal government tries to chart a course to bring blockades jamming border crossings and the capital city under control.
The Emergencies Act gives the federal government sweeping powers when it is invoked. But before it can be triggered, the government is required to consult with provinces and territories.
A provincial source said the Prime Minister reiterated to the premiers that Ottawa has no plans to call in the Canadian military, but is prepared to use its authority under the Emergencies Act to target certain types of activities, such as banning protests at border bridges, trade routes and downtown city cores.
Other federal measures include giving the RCMP and other authorities the legal right to secure protected places, impose hefty fines and imprisonment and authorization to render essential services, which would allow for the towing away of trucks being used in the protests.
The federal cabinet has not yet decided to trigger the unused powers of the Emergencies Act but was required to consult to the provinces as required under the law. The provincial source said the provinces expect the federal government to act fairly quickly. The Globe is not identifying the source who was not authorized to discuss the matter.
Parliamentary Reporter Marieke Walsh, Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife and Parliamentary Reporter Janice Dickson report here.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
PROTESTS
MOUNTIES ARREST 11, SEIZE WEAPONS AT ALBERTA BORDER CROSSING - RCMP say they have arrested 11 people at the main United States border crossing in southern Alberta after becoming aware of a cache of firearms and ammunition. Demonstrators have been protesting against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers and broader health restrictions near Coutts, Alta. Story here.
JUDGE GRANTS INJUNCTION AGAINST NOISE, IDING VEHICLES AND FIREWORKS - An Ontario judge has granted an injunction to enforce noise and idling bylaws in Ottawa. The protest by anti-government demonstrators blockading city streets around Parliament Hill is now in its third week. Story here. Meanwhile, the Ottawa mayor’s office said Sunday it had reached an agreement with protest organizers to move the trucks that have clogged traffic and residential neighbourhoods in the capital’s downtown core for the third weekend to protest COVID-19 public-health measures. Story here.
CHALLENGES FACING OTTAWA’S POLICE CHIEF - Ottawa Reporter Michelle Carbert takes a look at Ottawa’s embattled police Chief Peter Sloly, whose response to the continuing Freedom Convoy protest in his city pits his progressive views against a complicated threat. Story here.
AMBASSADOR BRIDGE REOPENED - The Ambassador Bridge reopened late Sunday, nearly a week after demonstrators brought daily commercial traffic across the important trade link between Canada and the United States to a halt. Story here.
DONOR DATA SAID TO BE LEAKED - A leak site says it has been given reams of data about the donors to the Canadian anti-vaccine mandate truckers after the fundraising platform popular with supporters of the movement allegedly suffered a hack. Story here.
GLOBE AND MAIL EXPLAINER - Windsor’s Ambassador Bridge is open. Ottawa’s protests are in their third week. Where else are truck convoys now? The Globe and Mail Explainer is here.
MEANWHILE
BIG CHANGES COMING IN ONTARIO COVID RULES - Ontario plans to lift its vaccine-certificate system March 1, Premier Doug Ford announced Monday, while allowing the removal of current capacity limits for restaurants by Thursday. Masking rules are to remain in place. Businesses will be free to continue using the province’s proof-of-vaccination system if they choose. Story here.
PREPARATIONS FOR WAR IN THE UKRAINE - Foreign Correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe reports from Lviv, Ukraine as Canadian troops are pulling out of the country and the few remaining diplomats are moving from Kyiv to this cultural centre in the country’s west, where local workers spent their Sunday stocking up on bullets – and churchgoers consulted their priest about whether it is better to flee or fight. Story here.
THIS AND THAT
The projected order of business at the House of Commons, Feb. 14 is here.
THE INCIDENT RESPONSE GROUP - The Prime Minister has been spending a lot of time lately in meetings with the Incident Response Group, a cabinet committee that, according to a Dec. 3 statement here from the Prime Minister’s Office, serves as a “dedicated emergency committee in the event of a national crisis or during incidents elsewhere that have major implications for Canada.” According to the same advisory, membership of the group may consist of relevant ministers and senior government leadership, as needed, based on the nature of the incident. The Globe and Mail has reached out to the PMO to see who is on the current iteration of the committee.
COMMONS VOTE ON FEDERAL MANDATES - Monday’s agenda includes a Commons vote on an Official Opposition motion, sponsored by interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen, that the House call on the government to table a plan for lifting all federal mandates and restrictions and to table the plan by Feb. 28.
ONTARIO FINANCIAL UPDATE - Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy is releasing Ontario’s 2021–22 Third Quarter Finances and providing an update on Ontario’s economic and fiscal outlook.
THE DECIBEL
On the Monday Valentine’s Day edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Yader Guzman , a freelance photographer based in Bogota, Colombia talks about the journey of red roses we buy in Canada from Colombia - the second-largest flower exporter in the world - where they are grown. He talks about how they go from greenhouses in Bogota to local stores in Canada and how this became such a huge industry for Colombia. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Private meetings. The Prime Minister hosted a call with provincial and territorial premiers, and attended a meeting of the Liberal caucus. The Prime Minister is scheduled to deliver remarks and hold a media availability at 4:30 p.m.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh held a media availability on health care, and held a roundtable, closed to the media, with University of Ottawa students to hear about the impact the truckers convoy protest has had on their daily lives.
No schedules released for other party leaders.
PUBLIC OPINION
DATA DIVE WITH NIK NANOS - Canadians are losing faith in the country’s most vital institutions. Ottawa’s protests are only part of the national malaise that has led some to question national institutions like Parliament, the prime minister and the governor-general. The Dive begins here.
THREE-IN-FOUR CANADIANS TELL CONVOY PROTESTERS TO GO HOME - Research from the Angus Reid Institute suggests more than two in five Canadians now say the protests have made them more inclined to support continuing restrictions related to masking indoors (44 per cent) and vaccination requirements to cross the Canada-U.S. border (44 per cent). Nearly three-quarters of Canadians (72 per cent) say the time has come for protesters to “go home, they have made their point.” Details here.
OPINION
Kelly Cryderman (The Globe and Mail) on the confidence of Alberta’s Premier that he has done the right thing amidst a good reason for skepticism: “Jason Kenney acknowledges he “reflected on” the optics of announcing an easing of pandemic health measures in Alberta, and whether it would look like kowtowing to Coutts protesters who want all COVID-19 mandates dropped immediately. But he insists, as he did earlier this week, the decision had nothing to do with the truckers blockading the border. “It’s not pandering to an extreme,” the Premier said in an interview with The Globe and Mail, responding to criticism from the province’s NDP and others.
David Parkinson (The Globe and Mail) on a Conservative private member’s bill taking Bank of Canada attacks to a next level: “The Conservatives fired a shot across the Bank of Canada’s bow last week, in the form of a private member’s bill from one of the party’s biggest names. And no, it wasn’t the central bank’s usual Conservative agitator, Pierre Poilievre, though the party leadership candidate’s influence was evident. Last Wednesday, former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer sponsored a bill named the “Bank of Canada Accountability Act,” which proposes amending the Bank of Canada Act to put the Auditor-General of Canada in charge of auditing Canada’s central bank. Before even talking about the bill, Mr. Scheer thanked Mr. Poilievre for his leadership on the issue.”
Andrew Steele (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on the Conservatives being too quick to ditch their leaders: “Conservative Party leaders are like Kleenex: used once and thrown away. Since Confederation, the average Liberal led the party more than 11 years, or nine years with interim chiefs. Leaders of the NDP/CCF served an average of almost eight years. But the average leadership of the Conservative, Progressive Conservative, Reform or Canadian Alliance parties lasted just 6.3 years, and only five years when including interim leaders. That means the average Liberal led their party through three elections, the average New Democrat two, but a Conservative only one.”
Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com. Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop.