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Toronto, Ontario Canada - February 12, 2022 - Anti-Vaccine Mandate protest near the Queen's Park Legislative Assembly of Ontario in support of the "Freedom Convoy" truckers protest in Ottawaeight7sixJOE/Shutterstock

OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – The public hearings into the use of the Emergencies Act (EA) revealed on Tuesday that the organizers of the Freedom Convoy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government, and both federal and provincial police were on the cusp of a deal to end the protest amicably before the act was invoked.

On Tuesday, Brendan Miller, counsel for the Freedom Convoy, grilled Ontario Provincial Police Inspector Marcel Beaudin during the public inquiry examination period in Ottawa, asking him what happened to the proposed February 11 agreement to peacefully end the protest that he drafted alongside Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Brenda Lucki and then-Deputy Public Safety Minister Rob Stewart.

Beaudin testified that he believed the proposal was “dead in the water” and that it was likely not tabled to the Trudeau government before they invoked the EA, at which point Miller stated that the proposal was in fact discussed, but was ultimately ignored by the federal government.

Miller asked: “Did you know that meeting was at 3:30 pm and that it was with cabinet and that it was the incident response group of the political executive meeting and that your proposal was provided to them?”

Beaudin replied, “No.”

“It was. I can tell you that. And then they invoked the Emergencies Act,” responded Miller.

According to the memo that outlined the deal: “The deal would be: Leave the protest and denounce unlawful activity and you will be heard.”

The convoy organizers had already ensured that over one hundred trucks would be taken off of residential streets and, according to the deal, were committed to moving their trucks out of Ottawa and continuing to negotiate with the government.

“The recommendation was essentially the political branch of the Government of Canada would agree to a meeting with the protesters but there would be certain conditions to that and they would have to denounce anything unlawful and get out of downtown Ottawa,” said Miller.

The fact that the deal was not discussed by Cabinet prior to invoking the EA appears to contradict the EA legislation itself, which states that it can only be applied when a situation arises “that cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.”

While the EA was ultimately revoked just days after its invocation, in the interim the RCMP and other police forces were deployed to physically remove the peaceful protesters, while the Trudeau government also instructed financial institutions to freeze the bank accounts of those involved without a court order.

The inquiry into Trudeau’s use of the act began on October 13 and is set to end in late-November with a total of 65 witnesses, including Trudeau, slated to testify.

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