QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Release of Suspended Accounts
February 24, 2022
Thank you, Your Honour. My question is for Senator Gold. Senator, hundreds maybe thousands of Canadians’ bank accounts were frozen during the invocation of the Emergencies Act on February 14, 2022.
With yesterday’s revocation of the Emergencies Act, have all these accounts been unfrozen?
Well, thank you for your question. I can’t answer definitively that they have all been unfrozen. I suspect that’s probably not the case yet. There have been reports that a number have been unfrozen, especially those who left. I’ll certainly make inquiries to the extent that the information is available and be happy to share it in the chamber.
Thank you, Senator Gold, for that. It would appear to me — I don’t know the exact law on this — that if accounts are still frozen, it would be outside the purview of the Emergencies Act. Therefore, we would expect some immediate action.
Senator Gold, what is the intent of the government with regard to the information that was collected under the authority of the now-revoked act, with regard to Canadians’ banking information?
I think it’s important for senators to understand — they certainly don’t want to revisit the hours I spent the other day — that at such time as the act, the proclamation, was invoked, the measures were in place and enforced. At such time as the government decided it was no longer necessary, those measures ceased. However, actions taken during the period that were authorized by the regulations promulgated under the Emergencies Act remain subject to those terms.
The government, as prudent as it was in deciding to invoke the Emergencies Act and as responsible as it was in determining — as it had been stating and I had been repeating — based upon the advice of police, law enforcement, the intelligence community and other advisers, that it was no longer required, this chamber should be assured that the government can proceed responsibly and prudently with regard to matters you questioned.
