this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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As I understand it it was still only a police response and the army was not called in. Why couldn't the municipalities just call in the police of their own accord?
They did. The Ottawa Police Service was in the city and involved from the beginning. For whatever reason, they were unable or unwilling to clear the siege for 3 weeks. Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario and the one who would call in the Ontario Provincial Police, was MIA and not taking care of his responsibility. The only way the federal government could directly take control of those organizations, as well as bring in assistance from other provinces such as SQ from Quebec, is via the Emergency Act. Which they did, and ended the situation in a day or two when local authorities refused to deal with it for over three weeks.
It's also worth bearing in mind that concurrently with the siege in Ottawa, there were two border blockades set up, one on the Ambassador bridge and one near Coutts, Alberta. They were part of the same event and the Emergency Act was used to clear that up as well.