Freedom Convoy, blockades hurt investor confidence in Canada | Trucker Commission Day 25 recap

Officials testifying on day 25 of the Public Order Emergency Commission claimed that investors were worried about Canada's reliability during the Freedom Convoy, William Diaz-Berthiaume reports.

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In today's report, we're taking a look at to proceedings from day 25 of the public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act.

Back in February, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked this never-before-used act on the peaceful protesters who were part of the Freedom Convoy, a movement that saw truckers and their supporters travel from across Canada to the nation's capital to protest COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.

This inquiry is a failsafe built into the Emergencies Act to prevent authoritarian leaders from using it unjustifiably. The inquiry aims to figure out whether the Emergencies Act was justified and necessary, as specified under section 2 of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act.

The witnesses appearing before the commission on day 25 were John Ossowski, Michael Keenan and Christian Dea. Ossowski is the former president of the Canadian Border Service Agency, while Keenan is the deputy minister of transport and Dea is the chief economist at Transport Canada. This means that Keenan works extremely closely with Liberal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, who is also set to testify at a later date.

In any event, here are parts of Keenan's testimony, which he conducted alongside Dea.

Now, here are a few points to focus on: During Freedom Convoy lawyer Brendan Miller's cross-examination, we found out that Alghabra did not pass along crucial information to Keenan regarding the Canada-U.S. borders, even though that information had been discussed internally with ministers.

Then, both witnesses claimed that the blockades at the border were affecting the confidence investors had when it came to the Canadian economy.

Another interesting moment came up during Miller's cross-examination of former CBSA president Ossowski. Miller asked whether or not Ossowski had received information that there were threats coming from the United States directed towards Canada.

Watch Ossowski's response:

During the evening, we invited another Freedom Convoy lawyer, Eva Chipiuk, to speak to us about her view of what happened on day 25. You can see her insightful thoughts from our livestream below.

There you have it. That's what you need to know from day 25 of the Emergencies Act inquiry. To see all of our coverage from the inquiry's start until it's conclusion later this month, and to support our 100% viewer-funded journalism, visit TruckerCommission.com.

Canada News Analysis Public Order Emergency Commission
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