44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 20, 2022 07:00AM
- Feb/20/22 11:06:22 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I took special care in my speech to emphasize the importance of the charter. As I said at the outset, the Emergencies Act is subject to it. It is time limited for a period of 30 days. It is geographically focused. If police need those powers, then those extra powers are available, but if they do not need them, they do not need to use them. Therefore, I do not know where the concern of the Bloc and Conservative members comes from when they say there is a threat to freedom and that the government has engaged in overreach here. We heard from the police. They needed the extra powers in order to push back against what was a clear threat to our democracy, and it looks like in the past few days there was success in that regard because of the invocation of the Emergencies Act.
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- Feb/20/22 1:08:24 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.
His account of what happened to his family is unfortunately similar to what I have been told, and what my aunt and family friends have told me, about October 1970, and I totally understand the horror he must have experienced back then.
What is happening now is not about the army, it is about protesters. I kept reading and rereading, and I wondered what powers the police did not have before the Emergencies Act was invoked.
Were they unable to issue fines? Were they unable to co-operate? Were they unable to enforce a court order? What powers did they not have that were suddenly given to them?
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- Feb/20/22 2:07:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I liked the tone of the speech given by the member, my former colleague on the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, with whom I have had the opportunity to share many thoughts.
Nevertheless, I will ask him the same question I asked my other colleague earlier. Where and how do these emergency measures give police rights and powers that they did not already have?
Before these emergency measures were invoked, were police forces from different municipalities not allowed to work together?
Could police officers not issue fines?
Could police officers not enforce court orders?
How do these emergency measures give the police new powers?
What are the new powers?
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- Feb/20/22 2:37:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed by the member's answer to the question before, but also by the speech because it is a blank cheque that the member has given. This is not the NDP of Tommy Douglas, who said that the Emergencies Act is a sledgehammer on the peanut of what is going on right now.
If this is not a blank cheque, then when should these emergency powers end? What is the view of the NDP? What is the member's view? When should these powers be gotten rid of? That is the question I am hearing from my constituents. They are panicked. They want to know when the NDP will stop supporting these measures.
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- Feb/20/22 2:56:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have been clear from the outset. New Democrats believe that this is a national emergency, that it was absolutely warranted to invoke the Emergencies Act and that at any point, when it is no longer necessary or if the government overreaches, we will withdraw our support. It is really incumbent on the Liberal government to demonstrate clearly why these powers are still necessary.
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- Feb/20/22 3:53:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Andreas Park, who is a finance professor at the University of Toronto, commenting on the extraordinary financial powers to freeze people's bank accounts said, “What we're doing is we're taking people who have not been charged with a crime and we're threatening them with financial ruin. It strikes me as the mob rule.”
They should be afraid of mob rules since the Minister of Justice indicated that political movements the Liberal government disapproves of should be worried. Would the member please comment on that extraordinary power?
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- Feb/20/22 7:50:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his intervention today. He spoke about knowing when it would be appropriate for the powers that are part of the Emergencies Act to stop. How will he know that? How will the Liberal Party give information to parliamentarians that it is in fact time for us to end the Emergencies Act powers?
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- Feb/20/22 8:49:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, to continue the logic of the Liberal member who just asked a question, I have to say that never in my life have I had a police force or an acting chief of police turn down more powers for their officers. I have never heard a police chief or a police force say that they would like to carry out searches without a warrant. I think that this is true for everyone. The police will never say no to more powers.
I would like to hear my Bloc colleague's views on that.
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