October 10th, 2022 | ALLAN RAY

Liberal Judge, Appointed By Liberals, Set to rule on liberals' use of emergency powers

Justice Paul Rouleau is set to head the hearings on Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act.

The hearings into the Trudeau government's use of emergency powers start in the forthcoming week. The hearings and eventual ruling will be headed by a justice who was appointed to the bench by Paul Martin and who has served Liberal Party interests for a majority of his life and career.

Justice Paul Rouleau is set to hear arguments from all sides beginning on October 13th. Rouleau was appointed by Justin Trudeau in April to follow the law, which states that an inquiry must be held within 60 days after the act is revoked or expired. Rouleau has had a lengthy career in both politics and law.

Rouleau served on John Turner's leadership campaign in 1983 and then as the Liberal leader's executive assistant, who helped choose the cabinet for Turner's short-lived tenure as Prime Minister in 1984. Turner beat future Liberal Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, on the Liberal leadership's second ballot. Paul Rouleau helped Turner every step of the way, up until Turner was defeated by Brian Mulroney in the largest electoral landslide in Canadian history.

In 2002, Rouleau was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court by Liberal Prime Minister, Paul Martin.

In April of this year, Rouleau found himself again being appointed by a Liberal Prime Minister. This time, it was to rule on whether the Liberal government properly invoked the Emergencies Act in response to a convoy of truckers and protesters blockading roads in Ottawa. Rouleau will be tasked with deciding if the Trudeau government abused or misused its powers in an effort to shut down protests against the Liberal government's vaccine mandates.

Rouleau will be forced to ponder why the Trudeau government, through 18 months of a pandemic, never bothered to invoke the act. He will be forced to hear arguments from all sides and will be faced with the likely prospect of having to justify his ruling. Will he acknowledge the Trudeau government's refusal to invoke the act at the height of the pandemic, choosing only to invoke it when the Liberal Party's political agenda was directly attacked and roads in the nation's capital were blocked?

As stated by law, the use of the Emergencies Act must be properly justified.

Paul Rouleau will be forced to justify, clarify and explain how a pandemic that shut down businesses and killed 25,000 Canadians did not compel the government to invoke the Emergencies Act, but how a convoy of peaceful protesters did. If Rouleau chooses to rule in favour of the Trudeau government, his work will surely be cut out for him.