Premier Dalton McGuinty stared down critics in his own Liberal caucus over his government’s actions during the recent G20 summit in Toronto by invoking the spectre of both Pierre Trudeau and Richard Nixon.
In a closed-door meeting with MPPs on Wednesday, McGuinty deflected questions from members unhappy at the heavy-handedness of police in dealing with protesters—and the government’s complicity in failing to correct the mistaken impression officers had been given more powers.
“He told us, ‘Just remember, the same guy who gave us the Charter also gave us the War Measures Act,’” said one startled MPP, noting the premier also refuted calls from several members to strike a public inquiry into the G20 debacle.
McGuinty’s contrasting of Trudeau’s 1982 entrenchment of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution to the former prime minister’s use of the War Measures Act during the 1970 October Crisis in Quebec was “bizarre,” said another member.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/833319--mcguinty-invokes-trudeau-and-nixon-to-defend-g20-actions?bn=1There is no way to make a comment on this. One will have to wait twenty years to find out what is going on.