Inquiry set to deliver its verdict today on Ottawa's use of emergency powers to end convoy protests

The inquiry tasked with looking into the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act will release its report today — a document that should shed new light on one of the Trudeau government's most controversial and consequential decisions.

The final report of the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) is to be tabled in the House of Commons at noon. The question at the heart of the commission's mandate was whether the federal government was justified in using emergency powers to quash an anti-vaccine mandate protest that occupied downtown Ottawa for several weeks.

The protesters took issue with the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the vaccination requirement for cross-border truckers. Protesters also blockaded key border crossings in Windsor, Ont. and Coutts, Alta.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act last February to end the protests — the first and only time the law had been triggered since it was created in 1988. The act replaced the federal government's previous emergency powers law, the War Measures Act.

By invoking the act, the government gave law enforcement extraordinary powers to remove and arrest protesters, and gave itself the power to freeze the finances of those connected to the protests. The temporary emergency powers also gave authorities the ability to commandeer tow trucks to remove protesters' vehicles from the streets of the capital.

The law defines a national emergency as a situation that "cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada" that also either threatens the lives of Canadians or threatens Canada's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.

In the report, Commissioner Paul Rouleau, a justice of the court of appeal for Ontario, is expected to state whether the government's use of the Emergencies Act met those requirements. Rouleau's reasoning could establish guidelines on the use of the act going forward.

The Trudeau government has maintained that the nature of the protest forced it to invoke the act. In his testimony before the commission last fall, Trudeau said local police did not have an effective plan to deal with the occupation and he feared an oubreak of violence.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the government used the act based on advice from law enforcement. But both RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and then-interim Ottawa police chief Steve Bell denied asking the government to invoke the act. The Conservatives called on Mendicino to resign over the issue.

The Conservatives have criticized the government over its use of the act, saying that the threshold to invoke it was never met. They've said that existing laws could have addressed the protests without the government having to resort to emergency powers.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh supported the act's invocation, but said it represented a government failure to deal with the protests earlier.

The POEC held weeks of hearings in the fall. The commission heard from over 70 witnesses and gathered thousands of documents relating to the protest, including government and law enforcement communications.