Emergencies Act use was a clear overreach: Senator Wells
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While Ottawa echoed with truck horns and laughable claims by a few of a pending insurrection, the RCMP put an end to what was a genuine security threat in Coutts, Alberta, where Mounties seized guns, ammunition and body armour from trailers blockading the Canada-United States border.
No one was injured in Alberta, or at another serious protest at the Windsor, Ontario border crossing, where individuals charged with criminal offences will go through the justice system, just as anyone would who is accused of breaking the law. The system worked as intended.
Yet, the day after the Windsor blockade was removed the federal government invoked the never-before-used Emergencies Act to crack down on a public assembly, to compel businesses to provide services to the state, and to freeze the assets of Canadians without due process.
The use of the Emergencies Act in this instance was not only unnecessary, but it was wrong in law and substance.
All levels of government have laws and tools available to them to keep peace, order and good government. None were used effectively in the extended trucker occupation in front of Parliament Hill. The staggering incompetence of local authorities and the unwillingness of the municipal, provincial and federal governments to act as the protesters dug in on Wellington Street does not justify the authoritarian and clumsy tactics the prime minister ultimately used.
A quick history lesson: the Emergencies Act is heir to the War Measures Act (WMA), which was passed in the days after the declaration of the First World War. The WMA was also invoked by the federal government to send the military into Quebec in the 1970 October Crisis.
But it was a blunt instrument that was not well suited to a domestic crisis and so the Emergencies Act was passed in 1988 by a Progressive Conservative government, providing greater specificity on when and how it could be used along with substantive oversight and accountability mechanisms.
The Emergencies Act requires a situation that “seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians” or that “seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada.”
It is difficult to understand how anyone could say that the Ottawa protest came close to this threshold. Was it inconvenient, stressful, and at times annoying for those living and working in downtown Ottawa, including parliamentarians? Without a doubt. But it is ludicrous to suggest our sovereignty was in peril.
A third criterion says the act can only be used if there is no existing law that can deal with the situation. Ticketing and towing illegally parked vehicles is not digging very deep into the law enforcement toolkit. It happens just about every day and in every city in Canada.
People can also be charged with any number of bylaw and Criminal Code offences for disruptive behaviour, obstruction and illegal assembly.
Instead, the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa police sought out private property to facilitate trucker access to Parliament Hill — in at least one case over the objection of the site owner. Signs on Highway 417 directed protesters to the appropriate exit. The police set up barricades for them.
The Emergencies Act does not consider incompetence and inaction to be grounds for its use
Many who disagreed with the protesters resorted to vilifying them, presenting a handful of extremists as representative of the group who, in the words of the prime minister, hold “unacceptable views.”
It is this sort of speechifying that sparks anger and division in this country. And it obscures the fact that thousands if not millions of Canadians were sympathetic to Canadian truckers who had been on the front lines delivering goods that kept grocery store shelves stocked for the first two years of Covid. There was no compelling reason to abruptly change the rules to mandate vaccinations for those who crossed the Canadian border.
We are coming out from a brutal pandemic. People have lost income and jobs. People have lost loved ones. Billions have been spent wisely and billions more have been wasted. The country remains on edge. Thus, there are many legitimate reasons to review and criticize the federal response to the pandemic, including the invocation of the Emergencies Act without just cause.
It may be comforting for members of the federal government to imagine that everyone who disagrees with them is part of a deplorable, lawless mob. First, they would be wrong. Second, this is no justification for appropriating such sweeping powers unto themselves and the predictable abuse that followed.
Questioning our leaders and holding them to account — even through protest — is a right that belongs to all Canadians. And no government of the day can abrogate those rights because of incompetence, scapegoating, or political expediency without themselves being held accountable.
Senator David Wells represents Newfoundland and Labrador in the Senate.
This article appeared in the May 17, 2022 edition of the Toronto Sun.
While Ottawa echoed with truck horns and laughable claims by a few of a pending insurrection, the RCMP put an end to what was a genuine security threat in Coutts, Alberta, where Mounties seized guns, ammunition and body armour from trailers blockading the Canada-United States border.
No one was injured in Alberta, or at another serious protest at the Windsor, Ontario border crossing, where individuals charged with criminal offences will go through the justice system, just as anyone would who is accused of breaking the law. The system worked as intended.
Yet, the day after the Windsor blockade was removed the federal government invoked the never-before-used Emergencies Act to crack down on a public assembly, to compel businesses to provide services to the state, and to freeze the assets of Canadians without due process.
The use of the Emergencies Act in this instance was not only unnecessary, but it was wrong in law and substance.
All levels of government have laws and tools available to them to keep peace, order and good government. None were used effectively in the extended trucker occupation in front of Parliament Hill. The staggering incompetence of local authorities and the unwillingness of the municipal, provincial and federal governments to act as the protesters dug in on Wellington Street does not justify the authoritarian and clumsy tactics the prime minister ultimately used.
A quick history lesson: the Emergencies Act is heir to the War Measures Act (WMA), which was passed in the days after the declaration of the First World War. The WMA was also invoked by the federal government to send the military into Quebec in the 1970 October Crisis.
But it was a blunt instrument that was not well suited to a domestic crisis and so the Emergencies Act was passed in 1988 by a Progressive Conservative government, providing greater specificity on when and how it could be used along with substantive oversight and accountability mechanisms.
The Emergencies Act requires a situation that “seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians” or that “seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada.”
It is difficult to understand how anyone could say that the Ottawa protest came close to this threshold. Was it inconvenient, stressful, and at times annoying for those living and working in downtown Ottawa, including parliamentarians? Without a doubt. But it is ludicrous to suggest our sovereignty was in peril.
A third criterion says the act can only be used if there is no existing law that can deal with the situation. Ticketing and towing illegally parked vehicles is not digging very deep into the law enforcement toolkit. It happens just about every day and in every city in Canada.
People can also be charged with any number of bylaw and Criminal Code offences for disruptive behaviour, obstruction and illegal assembly.
Instead, the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa police sought out private property to facilitate trucker access to Parliament Hill — in at least one case over the objection of the site owner. Signs on Highway 417 directed protesters to the appropriate exit. The police set up barricades for them.
The Emergencies Act does not consider incompetence and inaction to be grounds for its use
Many who disagreed with the protesters resorted to vilifying them, presenting a handful of extremists as representative of the group who, in the words of the prime minister, hold “unacceptable views.”
It is this sort of speechifying that sparks anger and division in this country. And it obscures the fact that thousands if not millions of Canadians were sympathetic to Canadian truckers who had been on the front lines delivering goods that kept grocery store shelves stocked for the first two years of Covid. There was no compelling reason to abruptly change the rules to mandate vaccinations for those who crossed the Canadian border.
We are coming out from a brutal pandemic. People have lost income and jobs. People have lost loved ones. Billions have been spent wisely and billions more have been wasted. The country remains on edge. Thus, there are many legitimate reasons to review and criticize the federal response to the pandemic, including the invocation of the Emergencies Act without just cause.
It may be comforting for members of the federal government to imagine that everyone who disagrees with them is part of a deplorable, lawless mob. First, they would be wrong. Second, this is no justification for appropriating such sweeping powers unto themselves and the predictable abuse that followed.
Questioning our leaders and holding them to account — even through protest — is a right that belongs to all Canadians. And no government of the day can abrogate those rights because of incompetence, scapegoating, or political expediency without themselves being held accountable.
Senator David Wells represents Newfoundland and Labrador in the Senate.
This article appeared in the May 17, 2022 edition of the Toronto Sun.