The Conservative Party of Canada has released a petition in an effort to force Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign. The campaign was launched yesterday just hours after Canada’s Federal Court ruled that Trudeau’s 2022 invocation of the Emergencies Act to quell Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa and Alberta was unreasonable, unjustified, and a violation of the Charter of Human Rights.
In an email to subscribers, the CPC implored Canadians to “unite for freedom” by signing their petition. The petition accuses the Trudeau government of having “looked to seize the freedoms of Canadians” and silence their voices.
“Justin Trudeau gave his government unconstitutional power to freeze the bank accounts of political opponents and violated the Chartered Rights of Canadians,” reads the petition, which also refers to Trudeau’s time in office as a “reign of censorship.”
The post continues: “Today, the Federal Court ruled that Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act was UNCONSTITUTIONAL. His abuse of power led to the violation of Charter rights and freedoms, frozen bank accounts, and a divided country. FIRE Trudeau and Unite for Freedom. SIGN.”
Today, CPC leader Pierre Poilievre commented on the campaign, and compared Trudeau’s actions to those of a dictator. He accompanied his call for signatures to the CPC’s petition with a video of Trudeau stating that he “admired China’s basic dictatorship.”
The comments were made in 2013 during a Toronto fundraising event, with the Liberal leader responding to the question of which nation’s administration he admired the most.
“There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say, ‘We need to go green … we need to start investing in solar,'” Trudeau said, in comments that sparked offense amongst some Asian-Canadians.
Public responses to the CPC’s campaign are varied, with some supporting the CPC petition and others questioning whether it was too soon to make a concrete determination on what must be done.
“Signed. This is intolerable. Justin Trudeau should be in prison,” posted X user @Mattpetti32.
“How [about] we to see [sic] what [Supreme Court of Canada] has to say about it before shouting headlines?” asked X user @hdhntrjeff.
The Federal Court ruling states that the Trudeau government’s “decision to issue the Proclamation does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness— justification, transparency and intelligibility —and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration.”
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has announced that the Liberal government plans to appeal yesterday’s decision.
