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Welcome to Ottawa Playbook. I’m your host, Maura Forrest.Today, we consider the legacy of the “Freedom Convoy,” one year later. The Liberal caucus gathers in Ottawa. And we speak with AMIRA ELGHAWABY, Canada’s first special representative on combating Islamophobia.

CONVOY LEGACY —A year ago today, trucks were rolling toward Ottawa. A day later, the first of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” would arrive in the nation’s capital. The day after that, thousands of protesters would assemble at Parliament Hill to protest vaccine mandates, public-health measures, and JUSTIN TRUDEAU generally.

After that… well, you all know what happened after that.

It’s been one year since the trucker protests, and to be honest, it’s hard to know what to say about this anniversary. Regardless of the Ottawa Police Service’s apparently extensive preparations, there’s basically no chance of a repeat.

Vaccine mandates and other Covid restrictions have mostly been lifted. But that’s not the only reason. The Toronto Star’s GRANT LAFLECHE and RAISA PATEL reported last week on a convoy movement that, a year later, “finds itself both sprawling and rudderless, impassioned and divided.”

“The leaders that I speak with all realized that it was a moment in time, and that it will never be repeated,” convoy lawyer KEITH WILSON told the Star.

— Then again, there were those convoy-esque protesters who converged on the Cabinet retreat in Hamilton this week, proving the anger that motivated last year’s occupation is far from dissipated.

“Most COVID-19 measures have… fallen by the wayside, but because they were never really the point of the unrest, everything else remains a live issue,” SHANNON PROUDFOOT writes in a new feature for the Globe and Mail that grapples with the convoy’s legacy. “It’s gone, but it’s not over.”

— Except the protest IS over, and when it dispersed, so did the pressing need to deal with that anger. In the year since, Ottawa has dealt with the convoy’s aftermath in true Ottawa fashion.

For instance, a House of Commons committee recommended, after much reflection, that Wellington Street remain permanently closed to vehicle traffic. But in a dramatic turn of events, a municipal committee voted Thursday to reopen the street that runs in front of Parliament Hill, which has been temporarily blocked off since the protest.

And next month, Justice PAUL ROULEAU will issue his findings about the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, after six weeks of very sedate public hearings last fall.

— So what have we learned, one year out? How has the outpouring of anger and resentment changed us? We don’t have those answers for you here, sorry.

But if you’re feeling nostalgic for the honking and the hot tubs, you can check out this new exhibit of convoy photos taken by a Montreal photographer who said he found “something romantic to seeing these primal men and women getting together to defy the government” in all their “quixotic grunginess.”

We’ll leave it there.

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FIGHTING HATE — On Thursday, Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU announced that human rights advocate AMIRA ELGHAWABY will be Canada’s first special representative on combating Islamophobia.

Playbook caught up with Elghawaby to ask how she sees her new position, what recommendations she’ll make to the government, and how Canadians’ views on Islamophobia are changing. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What does your new role entail?

Where I see this playing the largest role is being able to amplify, to decision-makers and policymakers, the impacts of Islamophobia on Muslims across Canada. So being able to gather research, evidence, testimonies from folks on their lived experiences with Islamophobia, and bringing that to the attention of lawmakers to be able to look for creative solutions.

Are there recommendations that you already have in mind?

Among some of the priorities that we've identified is addressing online harms. Continuing to advance and advocate for strong legislation around that will be very important. As well, the government is working on a national action plan on combating hate [first promised for 2022]. And so again, being able to help inform that through working with communities.

Clearly something is broken when we see that Islamophobia has already taken the lives of 11 people in Canada [since 2017], the most of any G-7 country. That's the very worst end of Islamophobia.

And then there's, of course, discrimination. Statistics Canada just came out last week with data that shows new grads who are racialized were less likely to earn as high income as those who were not racialized. And amongst the groups that were most impacted were Arab and West Asian women. So something is going on in the sense of discrimination.

You mentioned the long-awaited online harms legislation. Why is that so important?

If we don't get a handle on the hate, the misinformation that's fueling a lot of the extremist views that are harming us, and also fueling the stereotypes and myths about who Muslims are, then it's almost two steps forward, three steps back. We’re really up against powerful machines that are fueling and fomenting division in our society. And we really need to get a handle on that if we're going to make any sort of substantive long-term progress.

We’re coming up to the sixth anniversary of the Quebec City mosque shooting, on Jan. 29. What has changed since then?

The recognition that Islamophobia is a real phenomenon in Canada has happened. But it wasn't actually the Quebec City massacre that did that. It was not until the massacre in London, Ontario, of the AFZAAL family, that I think it actually sunk in. As well, of course, there was a stabbing of a volunteer caretaker at a Toronto mosque. Eleven people killed in just the past six years.

So there is a recognition. That being said, it's still going to take some ways to really get at systemic issues.

The Liberal caucus is meeting in Ottawa today and tomorrow. Regional caucus meetings are on the schedule this morning. Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will give opening remarks at 2 p.m., and the national caucus will gather this afternoon and all day tomorrow.

Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND’s schedule lists “private meetings.” She will also attend the caucus retreat.

8:30 a.m. Trudeau will meet with KING ABDULLAH II of Jordan.

9:30 a.m. Governor General MARY SIMON will meet with King Abdullah II at Rideau Hall.

9:30 a.m. Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE will address the national Conservative caucus in Ottawa.

11 a.m. The prime minister will deliver remarks at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa.

1 p.m. International Trade Minister MARY NG will join U.S. Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN and U.S. Trade Representative KATHERINE TAI for the virtual launch of the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity.

1:30 p.m. NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH and MP LAUREL COLLINS will speak to reporters in Victoria, B.C. about Canada’s health care crisis.

— Coming up: Freeland will hold an in-person meeting with provincial and territorial finance ministers in Toronto on Feb. 3.

PREVIOUS COMMENTS NOTWITHSTANDING — Nobody seems to want to repeat what Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU told La Presse bureau chief JOËL-DENIS BELLAVANCE about a possible Supreme Court reference on the notwithstanding clause.

“It was always an option, but right now there's a trial in Quebec,” Justice Minister DAVID LAMETTI told reporters Thursday, referring to an ongoing legal challenge of the controversial Quebec secularism law, Bill 21. “Therefore, we will let the Court of Appeal do its job.”

Not exactly the same tone Trudeau struck with La Presse last week, when he told Bellavance that a Supreme Court reference was possible and that Lametti was considering his options. But that was before Quebec got all up in arms about it.

— Earlier this week, Trudeau suggested his comments were nothing new, since he’s long been clear he disagrees with the preemptive use of the notwithstanding clause. The Liberals have also previously said they plan to intervene when the legal challenge of Bill 21 reaches the top court. The bill is one of two pieces of Quebec legislation that use the notwithstanding clause to preempt constitutional challenges.

But Saturday was the first time Trudeau has made mention of a reference case. And he seems disinclined to do it again — at least for now.

— Related: On Thursday, the Angus Reid Institute released survey data suggesting a majority of people in all provinces except Quebec would like to abolish the notwithstanding clause, while three in five Quebecers would keep it.

— In other news: The Canadian Press reports this morning that Ottawa is preparing to announce the revival of federal body offering Cabinet legal advice.

CAUCUS RETREAT — Following the Cabinet retreat in Hamilton earlier this week, the entire Liberal caucus is meeting in Ottawa today and tomorrow, with Trudeau slated to give opening remarks at 2 p.m.

The Hill Times’ KEVIN PHILIPUPILLAI canvassed a few Liberal MPs and gathered — unsurprisingly — that affordability, inflation, housing and health care are their primary concerns. One MP also mentioned the debate over the notwithstanding clause.

ETHICS BREACH — Opposition MPs on the House of Commons ethics committee are calling for an emergency meeting regarding the ethics commissioner’s recent finding that International Trade Minister MARY NG broke conflict of interest rules when her office awarded contracts to a friend’s company.

“Given that this is the fifth major ethical violation from Prime Minister Trudeau and his ministers… it is pressing for the Committee to take up this matter,” they wrote in a letter to committee chair and Conservative MP JOHN BRASSARD.

On Thursday evening, Brassard tweeted that he has scheduled the committee to meet Tuesday afternoon. 

Who’s up:

CN, for getting an invitation to appear before a parliamentary committee studying the holiday travel chaos and just deciding, “Nah, we’ll pass.”

Who’s down:

Ottawa business owners, for thinking the thing that would really revitalize the downtown core would be to rebrand it as SoPa.

— The National Post gets action: Both the Conservatives and Liberals have told their MPs to stop billing taxpayers for home internet use, and government House leader MARK HOLLAND is planning to change the rules for all parties, following a report from RYAN TUMILTY.

— The CBC's DAVID THURTON reports: Green Party posted sensitive information about voters and members online.

— ÉRIC GRENIER's The Writ pod this morning is all about PIERRE POILIEVRE's attempts to woo Quebec voters. Guests are MARIE VASTEL of Le Devoir and POLITICO contributor PHILIPPE J. FOURNIER of 338Canada. Listen here.

— On APTN, Sen. PATRICK BRAZEAU discusses his goal to put warning labels on alcohol products.

— CHARLES SOUSA, former Ontario finance minister and newly minted Liberal MP, “may prove to be a moderating influence on the government's high-spending instincts,” GEOFF RUSS writes for the Hub.

— Roughly 300,000 pots, tools and other artifacts are being returned to First Nations after years boxed away in an Ottawa building, MARIE WOOLF reports for the Globe and Mail.

— Vaccine hesitancy and Covid conspiracies cost 2,800 lives and C$300 million in hospital fees, according to a new report from the Council of Canadian Academies.

— And the Daveberta podcast is back, now on Substack.

For POLITICO Pro subscribers, here’s our latest policy newsletter from ZI-ANN LUM: Tanksgiving day in Ottawa.

In other news for Pro readers:

— Top senators press Tai to fully enforce USMCA.

— Europe’s biggest, wealthiest cities are located in places increasingly threatened by climate change.

— Dutch chips CEO warns dueling blocs could affect supply availability.

— Southwest Airlines has lost $220M so far, following December meltdown.

— California lawmakers reintroduce bill to ban foreign governments from buying farmland.

Birthdays: HBD to CBC parliamentary bureau chief CHRIS CARTER, former Conservative Cabinet minister TONY CLEMENT and ANDREW BEVAN, former chief of staff and principal secretary to KATHLEEN WYNNE. Celebrating Saturday: Bonne fête to Bloc Québécois MP STÉPHANE BERGERON and former Alberta MLA DAVE QUEST. On Sunday: Liberal MP ADAM VAN KOEVERDEN.

Send birthdays to [email protected].

Spotted: The Alberta Party, posting (and then removing) a video endorsement from an AI on Instagram (h/t DAVE COURNOYER).

ALEX PANETTA, with a bill to watch for U.S. trading partners.

Sen. PETER BOEHM, moving into his “new office digs” in Parliament Hill’s East Block … ANDREA CHARRON, co-author of McNally Robinson’s best-selling non-fiction paperback this week.

Wednesday at Métropolitain Brasserie at the Dance for Her fundraiser for Ovarian Cancer Canada: SHANNON KOT, GREG MACEACHERN, ANNE MCGRATH, ANTHONY KOCH, GEORGE WAMALA, HEATHER BAKKEN, LAUREN KENNEDY and ANAIDA POILIEVRE. See CAROLINE PHILLIPS’ photos here.

Movers and shakers: Liberal MP KIRSTY DUNCAN is taking medical leave for a “physical health challenge,” she announced Thursday. She is staying on as MP for Etobicoke North.

STUART BARNABLE is joining the public affairs and advocacy team at Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

Media mentions: The Montreal Gazette, the city’s only English-language daily, has been asked to reduce staffing by up to 10 as part of Postmedia’s nationwide layoffs, LUCA CARUSO-MORO reports for CTV News.

— Find the latest House committee meetings here.

— Keep track of Senate committees here.

The House of Commons resumes Monday; the Senate returns Tuesday.

Thursday’s answer: On his day trip to Ottawa in 2009, BARACK OBAMA made a pitstop in the Byward Market where he picked up Maple Leaf shortbread cookies and a BeaverTail (cinnamon and sugar with a Nutella ‘O’) and a souvenir key chain.

Props to … everyone! DON PHILLIPS, DAVID MCLENNAN, JESSICA ERITOU, ERIC DILLANE, FAYE ROBERTS, STUART BENSON, RALPH LEVENSTEIN, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, KATELIN CUMMINGS, DANIEL KOMESCH,  DOUG SWEET, ANDREA KENT, LAURA  PAYTON, J.D.M. STEWART, JENI ARMSTRONG, MAUREEN MACGILLIVRAY, STEPHEN KAROL, JOSEPH CHAMOUN, OLIVIER CULLEN, ANDRE BRISEBOIS, JOHN DILLON, JOANNA PLATER, CHRISTOPHER LALANDE, AMY BOUGHNER, NANCI  WAUGH, SARAH ANSON-CARTWRIGHT, RICK PEARSON, TRACY SALMON, LUCAS MALINOWSKI, LAURA JARVIS, PHIL GAUDREAU, BOOTS TAYLOR-VAISEY, DOUG RICE, JOHN ECKER, GORDON RANDALL and PATRICK DION. 

Today’s question: Name the Canadian politician who said, “When we are alone, I don't call him William J. I call him Bill.”

Send your answer to [email protected]

Playbook wouldn’t happen: Without Luiza Ch. Savage and Sue Allan.

Want to grab the attention of movers and shakers on Parliament Hill? Want your brand in front of a key audience of Ottawa influencers? Playbook can help. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: [email protected]