44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 17, 2022 10:00AM
- Feb/17/22 10:16:36 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the Minister of Public Safety.
On Monday, as we entered the third week of illegal blockades and occupations, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act. We did it to protect families and small businesses, to protect jobs and the economy. We did it because the situation could not be dealt with under any other law in Canada. We did it because that is what responsible leadership required us to do.
For the good of all Canadians, the illegal blockades and occupations have to stop and the borders have to remain open. We have made progress since Monday. On Tuesday, the border was reopened in southern Alberta after the Coutts blockade was dismantled. The RCMP arrested a small group of people within the larger blockade and seized firearms, ammunition and body armour. It is believed that this group was willing to use force against police officers.
On Wednesday, the blockade in Emerson, Manitoba had been cleared without arrests or charges. Traffic and trade at this border crossing have now resumed.
In Windsor, Mayor Dilkens said that law enforcement was able to successfully intercept a new convoy suspected of heading to the Ambassador Bridge.
Here in Ottawa, law enforcement now has more tools and resources in order to give the people of this city their jobs, neighbourhoods and freedoms back.
In Windsor, Coutts and Emerson, illegal blockades have been lifted and border crossings have resumed or are resuming. I want to thank law enforcement officers, including RCMP members, for their work on the ground.
For the sake of the economy, families and workers, it is high time that these illegal and dangerous activities ended, including here in Ottawa.
Invoking the Emergencies Act is not something we do lightly. This is not the first, second or third option. It is the last resort.
When I consulted the provincial and territorial premiers on Monday morning I was very clear. By obstructing the supply chains, the illegal blockades are causing considerable harm to our economy and to Canadians.
It is consistent with the requirements of the Emergencies Act that the views of the premiers of all provinces and territories be carefully considered, and that is what we did. The consultation and collaboration with the premiers will continue until the situation is resolved.
As I said on Monday, the scope of the Emergencies Act is time-limited and targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate. It strengthens and supports law enforcement agencies so they have more tools to restore order and protect critical infrastructure.
These illegal blockades are being heavily supported by individuals in the United States and from elsewhere around the world. We see that roughly half of the funding that is flowing to the barricaders here is coming from the United States.
The goal of all measures, including financial measures, in the Emergencies Act is to deal with the current threat only, and to get the situation fully under control.
I want to reassure Canadians that when the Emergencies Act is invoked, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms continues to protect their individual rights. We are not using the Emergencies Act to call in the military. We are not limiting people's freedom of expression. We are not limiting freedom of peaceful assembly. We are not preventing people from exercising their right to protest legally. We are, in fact, reinforcing the principles, values and institutions that keep all Canadians free.
The blockades and occupations are illegal. They are a threat to our economy and to our relationship with trading partners. They are a threat to supply chains and the availability of essential goods, such as food and medicine, and they are a threat to public safety.
The Emergencies Act will be time limited and targeted to respond to the threats of occupations and illegal blockades only.
The measures are reasonable and proportionate. I want it to be clear to Canadians that when the Emergencies Act is invoked, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms continues to protect individual rights.
We are not using the Emergencies Act to send in the army. We are not taking away fundamental rights. We are not limiting freedom of expression or the right to peaceful protest. What we want to do is ensure the safety of Canadians, protect workers' jobs and restore trust in our institutions.
We understand that everyone is tired of this pandemic. We understand that Canadians are frustrated with COVID. Some protesters came to Ottawa to express their frustration and fatigue with public health measures, and that is their right. As I said, it is a right that we will defend in this free and democratic country. However, illegal blockades and occupations are not peaceful protests. They have to stop.
We all want the pandemic to be over. Public health measures are constantly being re-evaluated. We will continue to modify them based on the science and the situation, and we will continue to encourage people to get vaccinated.
This week, based on advice from public health experts, our health minister, Mr. Duclos, announced that we will soon start easing border measures for travellers. Our government—
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- Feb/17/22 10:56:43 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the problems in Coutts, Alberta, were resolved without the Emergencies Act. The same goes for Emerson, where things were resolved without the Emergencies Act. With the Ambassador Bridge, once the Americans called the situation unacceptable, it was resolved without the Emergencies Act. There were protests in Quebec City, and it was all resolved without the Emergencies Act.
Here, in the federal capital, in the Prime Minister's backyard, there is an occupation. What did the Prime Minister do? First, he called them whiners, then he blamed the police, and then he brought out the atomic bomb, also known as the Emergencies Act.
My question is simple. Between playing Pontius Pilate and dropping the atomic bomb, there was a point at which the government could have shown some leadership and made use of tools.
What does the leader of the official opposition think about that?
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- Feb/17/22 12:42:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I listened to the member's speech on CPAC as I was walking over here. I want to try to reduce the tone of this debate, so I will respectfully point out a couple of things.
First, what happened in Coutts, Alberta, is extremely concerning for any Canadian, and I presume all parliamentarians who are concerned about violence.
Second, people, including some outside of this very building, have openly called for the overthrow of a duly elected government, including an entity that is calling itself Canada Unity. I think that is direct evidence of an ideological imperative or agenda that is being pursued.
Last, I will gently point out one thing to the member opposite, and I appreciated his submissions, with all sincerity. All that is being extended here with respect to laws that are already compliant with section 8 of the charter, which relate to unreasonable search and seizure and FINTRAC, is ensuring that FINTRAC can be applied to cryptocurrency and crowdfunding sources. Is that not a necessary initiative given the foreign funding that is streaming into this country right now? If the member could—
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- Feb/17/22 1:11:26 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, earlier, we heard from one of the member's colleagues that the government said that it knows what a lawful protest looks like. I wonder why, then, the government did not act when we had protesters blockading VIA Rail and CN Rail, blocking the Port of Vancouver, crippling our economy, and crippling pipelines and oil and gas trains to the point that Alberta companies were offering to truck propane to Quebec.
Why was that considered a lawful protest not to be subject to such extreme, draconian acts as the government is bringing in, compared with what is going on now?
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- Feb/17/22 2:26:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this morning the Prime Minister contradicted two of his ministers who had stated that the application of the Emergencies Act would be geographically limited. The PM said it would apply to all of Canada. All the border crossings in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario have been cleared. The majority of premiers are clearly saying that Liberal government overreach is interfering in their jurisdictions.
When will the Prime Minister revoke this reckless decision and begin rebuilding the trust of Canadians?
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- Feb/17/22 2:28:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is not a joke. The Sureté du Québec has come to Ottawa to save the government's skin.
The Emergencies Act was not needed to resolve the situations in Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia or to clear the Ambassador Bridge. This is not necessary. The problem is that this crisis is happening right in front of Parliament. Why is that? It is because the federal government has been in hiding for three weeks.
Does the government realize that the situation would have been less dangerous if it had taken responsibility?
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- Feb/17/22 4:08:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to remind the hon. member, who speaks so highly of how peaceful it was here in Alberta and how peaceful what was happening in Coutts was, that Albertans lost almost $50 million a day. On February 14, the RCMP arrested 11 people who were charged with conspiracy to commit murder, and that was against our own police. If that is not violence, and if that is not urgent and an emergency, I do not know what is. There were 14 firearms found there, as well as body armour, a machete and huge quantities of ammunition. These are serious issues that are in our country and in our province, and we have lost hugely.
Would the member explain why he, and even members from our province, would stand with these folks who were terrorizing many people across our province, including the ones in Ottawa?
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- Feb/17/22 7:55:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to listen to my colleague from Winnipeg North. It is often both entertaining and enlightening.
It is interesting to hear him talk about the political aspects of this. It seems that the first thing that comes to mind is the pot calling the kettle black.
The Prime Minister expects us to believe that “the Emergencies Act will be “geographically targeted”, and that is a quote. That is what he told Canadians when he made the announcement. However, the Order in Council itself states that “a public order emergency exists throughout Canada”, and again that is another quote. We have nothing to suggest otherwise, nothing in writing. I can assure this House that the premiers from Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and many other provinces in the country do not want this in their provinces.
How does the member explain the contradiction, and why should we trust him and his Prime Minister when the first thing they did in the announcement of the act was mislead Canadians?
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- Feb/17/22 7:56:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would recommend that anyone who was listening to the member's question should take a look at what was in the Winnipeg Free Press yesterday in regard to the province.
There was a letter written by Premier Stefanson, virtually begging Ottawa to get more involved, saying it was urgent, there was a crisis. There is a serious problem in the province of Manitoba at the Emerson border crossing. It was devastating to their industries, and they need that border open. This type of legislation we are passing today is not only good for Manitoba; it is good for Ontario, it is good for Alberta, and it is good for all of Canada—
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- Feb/17/22 9:05:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I was listening to the member's remarks, I felt like we were living in two different worlds. It is not lost on me that he kept talking about these peaceful protests that ended quietly and through dialogue. I saw the news, and in Coutts, Alberta, they ended because there was a huge cache of weapons. That is something that is quite concerning to all Canadians. He was talking about the premiers who could do this without emergency powers. In Ontario, they actually enacted—
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- Feb/17/22 11:29:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is surprising to me. I suppose, since I come from Alberta, downtown Ottawa jobs being more important to the Liberals should not surprise me. However, when jobs in Alberta were being threatened by a rail blockade two years back, there was no mention of the Emergencies Act at that point in time. There was no mention of it. It was business as usual with the government trying to resolve the situation.
I would also point out that, at that time, the government sent out an army of ministers to talk with whomever they could to try to alleviate the situation. The opposite took place in this case. There was no dialogue with the truckers in the convoy as they came across the country. There was no acknowledgement that their concerns might be valid. There not even a second thought to lifting the mandates. The Liberals have inflamed the situation and have completely mismanaged it.
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