Ottawa, ON — Raquel Dancho, Conservative Shadow Minister for Public Safety, Dane Lloyd, Conservative Shadow Minister for Emergency Preparedness, and Luc Berthold, Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition, issued the following statement in response to the testimony from RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki at the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency (DEDC):

“From the beginning, Conservatives have said that the threshold to invoke the unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act was never met and we have repeatedly called on the Liberal government to justify its actions - but they have failed to do so.

“Last night, the Commissioner of the RCMP appeared before the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency and confirmed that Canada’s national police force never asked the Liberal government to invoke the Emergencies Act and that existing tools and laws were already available to address the situation.

“The RCMP Commissioner acknowledged there were existing laws to compel the use of tow trucks and seize the assets of participants in activities that threaten national security. Those powers were never used or entertained.

“It is clear that the Liberal government did not have the evidence to meet the threshold justifying the Emergencies Act. The Liberal government chose to disregard the law of the land and instead decided to give the Prime Minister and the Liberal government extraordinary powers by invoking the never before used Emergencies Act.

“We will continue to push to get answers and hold the Trudeau Liberal government to account for their unprecedented and unnecessary overreach of power by invoking the Emergencies Act.”