One year ago, our nation’s capital was overtaken. The convoy occupation was an acute crisis, amid the ongoing crisis of the pandemic. Many people who lived in the area suffered, and some continue to feel the effects one year on.
Failures in leadership, communications, emergency responses – all of these systems failures have been examined in government inquiries, from Justice Rouleau’s report on the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act, to the Ottawa auditor general’s series of reports on the city’s response.
The Ottawa People’s Commission on the Convoy Occupation also examined this crisis. It stands out for many reasons, and here are two:
- First, the Ottawa People’s Commission was carried out entirely by the community, without a mandate or funding from any level of government. (Maytree was one of the funders of the commission.)
- Second, the Commission focused on the experiences of people who were living in the area, and specifically at how the crisis impacted their human rights.
You can read this full article by lan Broadbent and Elizabeth McIsaac here:
