An Emergency in Ottawa

On February 14, 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made what might be the most controversial decision of his tenure, invoking the Emergencies  Act to end a three-week occupation of downtown Ottawa by truckers protesting mandatory COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Proclaimed in 1988,  the Emergencies Act is designed to give federal officials extraordinary powers in the event of threats to Canada’s national security that can’t  be managed under existing laws. Trudeau used it to make the p