LILLEY: Trudeau spreads misinformation after cops say they didn’t ask for Emergencies Act

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When it comes to how the Trudeau Liberals responded to the trucker convoy that took over downtown Ottawa earlier this year, misinformation might be the best word to describe it. From their descriptions of the convoy to the invocation of the Emergencies Act, Justin Trudeau and his team have consistently lied to the Canadian public.

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You can think the people involved in that protest were heroes or the worst people on earth. It should still bother you that your government has lied consistently.

On Tuesday, the Procedure and House Affairs Committee of the House of Commons heard directly from Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell that neither he nor his team requested the Emergencies Act to be invoked.

“Did Ottawa police make a request to the federal government to invoke the Emergencies Act?” Conservative MP Andrew Scheer asked.

“We were involved in conversations with our partners and with the political ministries. We didn’t make a direct request for the Emergencies Act,” Bell said.

This comes the week after RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki also told the committee that while the RCMP made use of the powers the act gave police, she didn’t ask for the act to be invoked.

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One of the key messages from the government has been that police had asked for these tools.

Well, if the Ottawa Police, the service in charge of overseeing the protest, didn’t ask for the act, and if the RCMP didn’t either, then who?

Time and again the Trudeau has put forward claims about the convoy and their response to it that simply aren’t true.

Cops asked for the Emergencies Act — false.

A large part of convoy donations came from outside of Canada — false.

Guns were stored in vehicles — false.

Convoy protesters started a fire in an Ottawa apartment building — false.

Russians were involved in organizing the protests — false.

Stories like these, often pushed by the prime minister’s office, cycled through friendly media outlets, were then used to justify invoking the Emergencies Act. The government actually cited CBC’s false reporting that the majority of donors to the convoy were American in their report to Parliament on why they invoked the Emergencies Act.

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While appearing before the Commons committee investigating the issue, both GoFundMe and GiveSendGo debunked the idea that the majority of funding came from outside of Canada. The Ottawa Police have charged someone with arson for the apartment fire and the there are no links to the convoy. There were no guns found in vehicles when police cleared the streets. There is no evidence of Russia organizing the convoy.

Regardless of where you stand on the convoy, and I was not a fan, it should bother you that your government was willing to be so cavalier with the truth, to look directly into the camera and lie to you.

“The Emergencies Measures Act was an overreach by the prime minister and a government in trouble,” Conservative leader Candice Bergen said in the House on Wednesday.

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Trudeau stood up to defend his actions without addressing the fact that his reasoning was based on a lie. For a government that is so concerned with average citizens spreading misinformation, they certainly are willing to spread lots of their own.

Maybe they want to clamp down on average citizens because they don’t want competition on the misinformation front.

Trudeau said that he’s called a public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act, but that inquiry is directed to look at the actions of protesters and police, not the government. The recent testimony by police that they didn’t ask for the act is more proof on why federal government actions must be reviewed.