'It feels like vindication': Ottawa residents react to Emergencies Act inquiry final report

Centretown resident Tim Abray says the final report into the federal government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to end the 'Freedom Convoy' protest last winter, "feels like vindication".

Centretown resident Tim Abray says the final report into the federal government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to end the 'Freedom Convoy' protest last winter, "feels like vindication".

Commissioner Paul Rouleau says the federal government met the threshold for invoking the Emergencies Act in February 2022. The inquiry also found a "series of policing failures" contributed to the protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other public health measures spinning out of control for three weeks in downtown Ottawa.

Abray also agrees with the commissioner that it never should have gotten to that point.

"It confirmed what a lot of the things people living through it knew the whole time, that it was a dangerous chaotic situation that public officials should have stepped in and done something about. It feels pretty vindicating," Abray said.

He says the three weeks of the convoy "where pretty terrible".

"We were pretty much locked in our homes. There was nowhere to go safely, easily." 

Abray says living through the convoy compelled him to advocate for change. Abray now works for a city councillor.