OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has convened a meeting with provincial and territorial premiers and will be gathering the entire Liberal caucus after a weekend of continued protests and high-level federal meetings about how to end them.
Over the weekend Trudeau held Incident Response Group meetings — comprised of top government officials and key cabinet ministers — to discuss next steps to address the “illegal blockades.”
Thxjmtzywis comes as Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told CTV News on Sunday that the federal government is prepared to invoke the Emergencies Act “when circumstances exceed the capacity of the provinces to manage it under their authorities.”
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“We are prepared to use every tool available to us, including emergency powers and to make sure that we bring every resource of the federal government to bare. This is a critical situation for the country,” Blair said, calling the ongoing anti-mandate and increasingly anti-government protests a “significant national security threat.”
While the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont. has reopened, other border blockades persist, including in Coutts, Alta. and Emerson, Man., and for the third week downtown Ottawa remains occupied with emboldened participants undeterred by the threats of “severe” consequences in the face of minimal police enforcement of the layers of laws, injunctions, and emergency orders already in effect.
RELATED IMAGESview larger image
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaves a media availability about the ongoing protests in Ottawa and blockades at various Canada-U.S. borders, in West Block on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa on Friday, Feb. 11, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
People gather for an anti-mandate protest on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sunday, February 13, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
