Doug Ford Running From The EA Inquiry Shows How Toxic Opposing Freedom Has Become

Ontario Premier Doug Ford may have proudly said he “stood shoulder to shoulder” with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a recent press conference, in response to a question about Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act, while the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) was beginning its inquiry, but now he is less than reluctant to testify. 

Ford was supposed to appear before the POEC and former Supreme Court justice Paul S. Rouleau has even summoned him, but Ford’s lawyer is fighting the summons in order to try and get the Ontario Premier out of his duty to testify to his actions during the Freedom Convoy, leading up to the invocation of the Emergencies Act. 

The Ontario Attorney General stated in documents filed with the Federal Court, challenging Ford’s requirement to appear that “irreparable harm will occur” if Ford is made to testify at the PEOC. There is little doubt some form of harm will occur, but harm to Doug Ford’s political image does not seem to be something the commission is supposed to protect.

One may assume Ford would get out of the Emergencies Inquiry not worse for ware, seeing as Justin Trudeau was the only politician who could have invoked the Emergencies Act, but that is missing a significant piece of the puzzle.

Seeing as Trudeau did not have the Ottawa municipal government, police force, the OPP, or the RCMP request the Emergencies Act be invoked, the only justification Trudeau may have left is Doug Ford’s invocation of emergency measures in Ontario in response to the Ambassador Bridge blockade.

The Ontario Provincial Police fairly easily cleared the Ambassador Bridge after they threatened to arrest any blockaders that remained, which they likely did not need provincial emergency powers to do, but even afterward, Ford continue utilizing the emergency powers and kept extending their use once the blockade was over. In theory, this left the door open for Trudeau to claim that the Ford PC government saw the Ottawa Freedom Convoy protest as part of the ongoing emergency. 

Both Ford and Trudeau were obviously in the wrong to have made use of disproportionate force to deal with the blockade, and peaceful protest in Ottawa, but Ford, unlike Trudeau, has avoided any direct connections to the violent crackdown on protesters in Ottawa.

Doug Ford has obviously not been a friend of freedom over the past few years, but being implicated in such a blatant anti-freedom action like the use of the federal Emergencies Act would further tarnish his reputation with more conservative Ontarians.

Although Ford just won another majority government this past summer, in the long run, he cannot risk losing a portion of his left-ward shifting party’s base to an alternative conservative party like the New Blue Party of Ontario.

The harder Doug Ford tries to get out of testifying at the POEC, the more you know direct opposition to the Freedom Convoy is now being viewed as contentious and bad for a politician’s brand. 

The anti-Convoy Ottawa city councilor Catherine McKenney just proved this by coming in a distant 2nd place in the Ottawa mayoral race, a race she was slated to be ahead in before she spoke at the Emergencies Act inquiry.

The majority of voters in Ottawa likely did not even support the Freedom Convoy, but McKenney’s anti-convoy activism, and fairly nasty rhetoric against those protesting health status discrimination was no doubt a big turn-off for a large portion voters.