A Canadian commission of inquiry has cleared Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of emergency powers to stop protests against his coronavirus vaccine mandates a year ago, over the objections of civil liberties groups.

The final report of the Public Order Emergency Commission was published on Friday. Justice Paul Rouleau found, “with reluctance,” that Trudeau’s actions met the high “threshold” for invoking emergency powers.

The convoy disrupted traffic, clogged the streets of the capital, and briefly blocked a border crossing to the U.S.. Trudeau, falsely claiming the protests were the work of white supremacist extremists, invoked emergency powers that not only allowed the police to suppress peaceful and non-disruptive protests, but also enabled the government to freeze the bank accounts of those linked to the protests.

President Joe Biden encouraged Trudeau to crack down on the protests, even though his actions included the use of emergency powers that would not have been allowed against protesters in the U.S. under the First Amendment of the Constitution.