Senator Gold: I understand your question. I want to be clear about what I said and didn’t say. Again, Hansard is the test of that.

I didn’t say to Senator Marshall that nothing was done. Whatever I said to Senator Marshall, let me respond to you. The government was aware, and security services undoubtedly were aware, of the threats potentially posed by the convoy once it was mobilized and on the road. The federal government at that point was in communication with provincial and municipal counterparts, as well as law enforcement counterparts. The reason they were in contact was to share information.

When the Emergencies Act was enacted, it gave extra powers to law enforcement and allowed for the rapid coordination of police forces — municipal, provincial, RCMP, to say nothing of provincial police forces from other jurisdictions. That allowed them to mobilize and work together without having to swear in individual officers. These are tools with which the federal government could take action under the Emergencies Act, along with the measures to define and cordon off areas; without the act, it did not have the jurisdiction to do so.

There would be a hue and cry not only in this place but across the country if the federal government, hearing that there were some rather extreme folks trying to encourage and mobilize and fund a convoy setting out to block bridges, ports or occupy a city, says, “Oh, my God, we know these things. So we’re going to take over municipal policing in Ottawa. We’re going to take over the jurisdiction of the Province of Ontario that has jurisdiction over its highways,” et cetera. That’s inconceivable in a federal country like Canada.

With all respect, it is the wrong question to ask, “Why didn’t the government act?” It had certain limited powers. It had a very strong and important responsibility, and it discharged that responsibility by working with other levels of government and police and law enforcement, which must remain independent from government direction. It is sad and regrettable that despite all of that, we arrived at a situation where these measures were necessary.