QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Public Safety
Emergencies Act
March 30, 2022
Minister, when testifying last night before the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency. The Honourable Perrin Beatty, the architect of the act said:
Emergencies legislation is designed to be legislation of last resort. It’s explicit on that. It is designed to be used when there is no other legal authority available.
Now that it has been used, it has become easier to invoke. You must not define down the threshold at which extraordinary powers are used to curtail civil liberties.
He continued:
That it made law enforcement easier is clear. However, the issue is whether the deliberately high threshold was met, not whether the powers given were useful.
Of course, the police have said that it was a useful deterrent. The Prime Minister said that he didn’t like or agree with the people. You have said the security of the nation was at stake. Many others have said it was unnecessary as the police had existing powers.
Minister, what then was your government’s actual rationale for invoking the act? It’s a precedent. Please state it as simply and clearly as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, senator, for the question. Our rationale for invoking the act, in short, was that it was necessary, and the necessity of invoking the act manifested in the challenges posed by the efforts of those participating in the illegal blockades, which created significant interruptions to not only our economy but also public safety across the country. In Coutts, for example, there were very serious charges laid under the Criminal Code, and here in Ottawa, the illegal occupation laid siege to public safety for a number of weeks. While I agree that there were laws that were on the books, what’s important, senator, is that those laws, at the time of the illegal blockades and occupation, were not effective at restoring public safety.
It was only after careful deliberation and after the advice that had been offered by all levels of the police service — including the commissioner of the RCMP, the commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police and the president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police — that we invoked the act. We invoked it because existing authorities were not effective. Yes, we reached deep into the tool box to use the Emergencies Act for the first time, but it was used responsibly and with restraint, and it helped to restore public safety.
