9 things you might have missed in the Emergencies Act inquiry report
CTV
The final report assessing the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act concluded that the threshold was met to enact unprecedented powers to end to the 'Freedom Convoy' protests, but what else did it say? CTVNews.ca dove into the massive report and came away with nine notable findings that you may have missed.
The Public Order Emergency Commission's final report assessing the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act concluded that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met the threshold for enacting unprecedented powers to end the "Freedom Convoy" protests and blockades – even if that move could have been avoided with better policing strategies and more involvement from all levels of governments.
That was the in-depth report’s main takeaway, but Commissioner Paul Rouleau—who led the national inquiry's nearly year-long efforts —made a number of other key observations and came to some interesting conclusions.
After diving into the more than 2,000-page, five-volume document, here are nine notable takeaways Rouleau made about the social media signals missed, policing opportunities lost, and internal concerns raised about the situation worsening, that you may have missed.
As was heard during the testimony, social media played a key role in organizing the "Freedom Convoy" and connecting supporters across the country from the beginning. But, Rouleau's report also offers in-depth analysis into how this movement was shaped in some ways by social media misinformation.
"Social media also allows hate speech, propaganda, conspiracy theories, and lies to spread farther, faster, and cheaper than ever before… False beliefs that COVID-19 vaccines manipulate DNA, social media feeds rife with homophobic or racist content, and inaccurate reporting of important events all featured in the evidence before me," wrote Rouleau.
"The fact that protesters could be at once both the victims and perpetrators of misinformation simply shows how pernicious misinformation is in modern society."
Trudeau's national security and intelligence adviser Jody Thomas also raised flags in the hearings that there are gaps in the federal government's ability to properly monitor and collect open-source information from social media.
