Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland say they didn't hear recommendations from police to enact the Emergencies Act.
Both ministers were called to testify before the special parliamentary committee that's tasked with exploring why the government declared a national emergency amid blockades at border crossings and in downtown Ottawa in February.
Questions about who wanted Emergencies Act deployed prompt Conservative calls for Mendicino to resign Freeland, for her part, didn't directly answer questions about who around the cabinet table suggested using the act. Since then, the RCMP and Ottawa police have said they did not ask for the act to be used, and the deputy minister for public safety told the same committee that Mendicino's words were misunderstood.
He said Tuesday the government "will never apologize for doing what is necessary" to end the protests and called for the Official Opposition to apologize for supporting the convoy.Freeland's appearance before the committee was, in her own words, "adversarial" at times.