Federal government met the threshold to invoke Emergencies Act: Rouleau

Repeated efforts by Ford and other ministers to shift the responsibility for dealing with the protests in Ottawa squarely onto the federal government were part of a political and policing breakdown that ultimately required the invocation of the Emergencies Act, wrote Justice Paul Rouleau in his long-awaited report into the use of the law.

“The province is ultimately responsible for effective policing in Ottawa,” Rouleau wrote.

“Given that the city and its police service were clearly overwhelmed, it was incumbent on the province to become visibly, publicly, and wholeheartedly engaged from the outset.”