QUESTION PERIOD — National Defence
Support for Police Services and Civilian Operations
February 27, 2020
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Leader, the railway blockades are hurting the Canadian economy — we’ve spoken about this many times — in addition to putting the health and safety of Canadians at risk. And all of this is due to Prime Minister Trudeau’s weak leadership. Last week, the Prime Minister rejected the option of ever asking the Armed Forces to support the police in ending the blockades. He said that the army could not be used in operations against civilians, regardless of what the civilians were doing.
It seems that the Prime Minister does not understand the concept of military aid to the civil power. And that is certainly not what another Prime Minister Trudeau thought back in 1970 when he had the military dispatched to the streets of Montreal to help the police arrest more than 400 civilians without a warrant.
Leader, has the current Prime Minister made up new rules on how and when the Canadian Armed Forces can be called in to support the police or other civilian operations in Canada?
Senator, thank you for your question. How well I remember those days as a young man in Montreal, astonished to see the Armed Forces in our streets. Happily, Canadians, at least those of my generation, were not used to that.
I do not believe, honourable senator, that this Prime Minister has made up new rules nor changed the rules. As I best understand it, the decision to bring in the military in the 1970 crisis was at the request of the premier of Quebec, as we say outside of Quebec, known as the prime minister of Quebec. Indeed, it is a convention, as I understand it, of the Canadian parliamentary system that when a premier of a province requests such assistance — as Premier Bourassa requested from then Prime Minister Mulroney during the Oka Crisis — the Prime Minister will respond. To the best of my knowledge, I do not know that such a request was made to the Prime Minister in the instant case.
Leader, as this crisis continues and given that it could well escalate, I wonder why the option of aid to civil powers was taken off the table by the Prime Minister. After all, we have a situation where vital infrastructure is being occupied by masked individuals who could, as Premier Legault stated yesterday, be armed with illegal firearms like AK-47s. Let me be clear, Leader. I am not suggesting anything here, but we must allow provinces, as you have already stated, to keep all of their options open.
So, Leader, if the Quebec government or any other province asks for support from the Canadian Armed Forces to end blockades in order to further protect Canadians, will the Trudeau government agree?
I thank you for the follow-up question. I think it would be inappropriate for me to assume an answer to a hypothetical question, the answer to which would be within the prerogative of the Prime Minister. However, I can say this: We all recognize, as I’ve said on a number of occasions in this chamber, how delicate the situation has been.
There is reason to be encouraged in that, at long last, a meeting is being held today with the hereditary chiefs and the Government of Canada. The fact that a quick solution has not yet been found reflects the complexity of the issues and the situation, but the meeting today is promising. And the government has asked the hereditary chiefs to agree to a period of peace and respect during these talks, as it is the position of the Government of Canada, which I hope we all share, that we need to create a space for productive and respectful discussions.
