Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino repeated disproven claims about the Freedom Convoy to justify the Trudeau government’s use of the Emergencies Act to crack down on the peaceful protest in Ottawa.
Mendicino and Attorney General David Lametti appeared before the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency on Tuesday to defend the government’s use of the never-before-used act.
While answering a question about why the government decided to resort to such extreme measures, Mendicino falsely claimed convoy protesters posed a threat to Ottawa residents and were connected to the highly-publicized arson attempt in a downtown apartment building.
“People who live in apartment buildings find that their front doors are locked and that fires are set in the hallways and corridors,” Mendicino said before Conservative MP Glen Motz interrupted on a point of order and corrected the Liberal minister.
Ottawa Police Service (OPS) has cleared the Freedom Convoy of any involvement in the arson attempt, arresting one suspect in March and another in April.
According to a Mar. 21 OPS press release, a 21-year-old man named Connor Russell McDonald was first charged for his involvement.
“A man has been charged in relation to a deliberately set fire in an apartment building on Lisgar Street on February 6, 2022. A second man is still wanted by police,” OPS wrote. “There is no information indicating MCDONALD was involved in any way with the Convoy protest which was going on when this...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday strongly rejected reports claiming that the government was planning to impose restrictions or additional taxes on foreign travel. In a rare move, PM Modi per...