Tag Archives: Emergencies Act

QP: A raucous disagreement on the Emergencies Act

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All leaders were present for what promised to be a fraught Question Period, where the prime minister would be responding to all questions. Candice Bergen led off, and wondered just what was the threat to Canadians that required the Emergencies Act, citing the test in the legislation. Justin Trudeau trotted out his line that using the Act is a serious issue, and that the test was met so they are giving police new tools. Bergen insisted that the situations were already de-escalating on their own, and that this was just about saving his political skin. Bergen repeated the allegation, insisted that Trudeau was name-calling, stigmatising and “traumatising” Canadians, and Trudeau said that by first insisting the opposition wanted to try and have it both ways. Bergen raised Blackface, Omar Khadr and a few other non sequiturs and then decried a “mental health” crisis before demanding all mandates be ended, and Trudeau accused the Conservatives of playing personal, partisan games.

Speaker Rota had enough of the noise, and turned the speaking list upside down and called on Mike Morrice, who asked about committing to mental health, and Trudeau praised their plans for a dedicated mental health transfer to the provinces and bragged the government’s Wellness Together app.

Rota returned to Bergen, who raised domestic assault stats to decry mandates, before she demanded capitulation to the occupiers’ demands, and Trudeau trotted out his worn lines about having Canadians’ backs.

For the Bloc, Yves-François Blanchet decried the application of the Emergencies Act in Quebec, and Trudeau reminded him that the Bloc were demanding action, while the application is limited and proportional, and a province who doesn’t need it doesn’t have to access it’s powers. Blanchet railed about the sensitivities of Quebeckers to the War Measures Act in its new form, and Trudeau listed federal tools that helped Quebec in the pandemic.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he decried how Black and Indigenous protesters were treated as compared to this occupation, and Trudeau admitted that they acknowledge systemic racism and they are committing to make changes. Singh switched to a French to demand the Emergencies Act not be applied in jurisdictions it is not wanted—a sop to Quebec—and Trudeau repeated that if the province doesn’t want the tools, they don’t need to use them.

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Roundup: Exit the police chief

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It never rains, but it pours, and yesterday the twist in the plot was that the police chief suddenly resigned his position. And while the immediate thought was that hey, someone is actually taking responsibility for their failure, it turns out that no, this was a “human resources issue,” likely related to bullying, harassment, and volatile behaviour around senior police leadership the longer this occupation drags on. And now we have an acting police chief at a time when the Ottawa Police Service is the police of jurisdiction during a crisis situation and under the aegis of the Emergencies Act, coordinating with the OPP and RCMP.

The other plot twist was that the mayor’s contact for his “backchannel negotiations” with the occupier leadership was Dean French, the lacrosse-loving chaos agent who used to be Doug Ford’s chief of staff. Mayor Watson said that French approached him about making contact, and Watson figured “anything to help,” rather than seeing the giant red flag and telling French to take a hike and never come back. So yeah, it’s like everyone is making the worst possible decisions, or we keep invoking Tucker’s Law.

Emergencies Act

Because we are still trying to sort out what all is happening around the invocation of the Act, here are some explainers from Naomi Claire Lazar and Lyle Skinner. As well, some observations about how it is being employed by the government, law professor Paul Daly has questions about some of the legal language.

The actual orders weren’t finally posted until 9 PM last week, which is when the rules actually went into effect, so good job on your timeliness there, guys. We now know that they are using the thread of political violence as their test for what meets the Act’s threshold, essentially calling it terrorism, which then raises the question of how this meets that particular threshold. The orders prohibit bringing food, fuel or children to the protest site, under threat of a $5000 fine or up to five years in prison—but we’ll see if police actually enforce that, as they have not been around the fuel convoy to the site.

As for the financial provisions brought into force, there are concerns that they could be a serious overreach, particularly if it affects an occupier’s ability to obtain financial services ever again. The occupiers, meanwhile, are trying to pivot to cryptocurrency, as though that will put them beyond the reach of government. (It won’t).

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QP: Platitudes about new tools for police

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With the Emergencies Act having been invoked, the prime minister was present in the Chamber today, as were most other leaders, which was good, because an exercise of emergency powers requires scrutiny. I’m not sure that’s what we got today. Candice Bergen led off, script in front of her, worrying about the Emergencies Act declaration, and wondered if the motion would not be bought before the Chamber until Friday, before the break week—which was a valid, if perhaps overly dramatic, concern. Justin Trudeau gave prepared remarks on the consultations with provinces and the time-limited nature of the declaration, but didn’t answer the question. Bergen noted that before she noted that the blockades in Coutts and Windsor cleared without this declaration, and concern trolled that the declaration would make the situation worse. Trudeau stated that this was a time for responsible leadership rather than the Conservatives encouraging these blockades. Bergen insisted that this was about an “ideological” desire to keep COVID measures in place, and pretended that this was against “science.” Trudeau repeated his points, this time naming individual MPs for encouraging these actions to continue. Gérard Deltell took over in French, and worried that half of the premiers were against the declaration and that this poured oiled on the fire, and Trudeau insisted this was about additional tools that the police of jurisdiction could use. Deltell repeated his concerns, and Trudeau insisted that these were “responsible steps” to keep the streets clear of illegal demonstrations. 

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and noted the situations resolved without the need for the Act, but worried that the declaration did not specify the geographic location it was to be imposed and wanted assurances it would not be applied in Quebec. Trudeau assured him the tools were only available if requested by local police. Blanchet gave a paranoid suggestion this was about imposing legislation on Quebec against their will, to which Trudeau repeated his points about local police.

Jagmeet Singh appeared by video for the NDP, and he decried the double standard of treatment of this occupation and worried about reports of police and military participation, and wanted assurances the measures would be used “for people” and not to support the occupation. Trudeau repeated about providing tools for police to give people their streets back. In French, Singh raised the weapons found in Coutts before repeating Blanchet’s demand not to apply it in Quebec, and Trudeau again insisted they would not impose anything where it was not needed by local police. 

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