Canada is less likely to need to invoke Emergencies Act again: former security official

The prime minister's outgoing national security advisor says the likelihood of having to invoke the Emergencies Act again in the future to dismantle a trucker convoy-type event has decreased since the federal government's first and last use of the legislation.

The prime minister’s outgoing national security advisor says the likelihood of having to invoke the Emergencies Act again in the future to dismantle a trucker convoy-type event has decreased since the federal government’s first and last use of the legislation.

Jody Thomas — who took on the role of national security and intelligence advisor (NSIA) just weeks before the so-called “Freedom Convoy” rolled into Ottawa in January 2022 — says the threat of another convoy or occupation attempt is “constant.”

But, as she told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday, “the understanding of how to respond is completely different.”

“And nobody's going to take them lightly any longer,” Thomas added.

When asked whether that means in her view the likelihood of invoking the Emergencies Act again has decreased, Thomas said it has.

“Certainly for this kind of event, yes,” she said, in reference to the trucker convoy, which gridlocked downtown Ottawa for three weeks and blockaded some key Canada-U.S. border crossings in early 2022.

Thomas retired late this week after more than 35 years as a public servant, the last two as NSIA. Her comments come in the wake of the Federal Court ruling this week that the use of the Emergencies Act to shut down the protests was “not justified.”