44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 28, 2022 10:00AM
- Apr/28/22 2:22:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Emergencies Act is so extreme that it requires the government to justify its use to prevent abuses against citizens. It requires an inquiry into the government's actions. Yes, I said the government's “actions”.
Analysts and civil rights groups were not fooled. The order giving Justice Rouleau his mandate asks him to investigate citizens.
Why is the Liberal government writing the findings of the inquiry before the inquiry has even begun?
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- Apr/28/22 2:23:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, neither the Minister of Justice nor the Minister of Public Safety are able to justify the use of the Emergencies Act. They are hiding behind cabinet confidence.
We are once again witnessing a concerted effort on the part of all the ministers to protect the Prime Minister, who chose to put on a political show at the expense of citizens' rights.
With the complicity of the NDP, the Liberals themselves established the rules of the committee that is supposed to analyze the government's decisions. They are preventing Justice Rouleau from carrying out the very specific mandate bestowed upon him by the act.
Why hide the truth from Canadians?
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- Apr/28/22 2:33:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have asked many times for the government to confirm if it will disclose the evidence that justified the invocation of the Emergencies Act. Every time, it has refused. If the government has the evidence to support its extraordinary actions, it should be pleased to take the opportunity to table it in the House today.
Canadians are increasingly wondering whether the Liberal government even had the evidence at all. Can the Minister of Public Safety confirm whether the evidence exists, yes or no?
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- Apr/28/22 2:33:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the short answer is, yes, the evidence exists. Where was my hon. colleague in January and February when businesses were shut down, people were laid off, our borders were closed and, outside this chamber, Ottawans were held hostage in their own homes? We debated those facts in the House.
I remember my hon. colleague and I having an exchange during the debate of the invocation of the Emergencies Act, which was only put forward after police officials told us they needed this special power to ensure they could restore public safety. We are going to co-operate with the inquiry so there is transparency and to make sure this never happens again.
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- Apr/28/22 2:34:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I guess I will take that as a no.
Appointing a commissioner to lead the inquiry into the government’s unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act must be a process that is completely transparent. Parliament was in no way consulted by the Liberal government on the appointment of Justice Rouleau.
For an inquiry as important as this, Canadians deserve to know how and why the government determined that Justice Rouleau was the appropriate candidate. What was the process? What qualifications were required? How many candidates were considered? Will the government reveal this information, yes or no?
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- Apr/28/22 2:36:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when the illegal blockades forced the closure of the borders, the closure of businesses and the layoff of workers, it was Canadians who paid the highest price.
It was on the advice of law enforcement that we invoked the Emergencies Act. It was necessary and it worked.
We have launched a wide-scale independent inquiry and appointed Judge Rouleau as commissioner. We look forward to co-operating with the inquiry in the interest of transparency.
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- Apr/28/22 2:37:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a fact that the economy was disrupted during the blockade. It is a fact that there were many disruptions at the border during the illegal blockade. It is also a fact that we invoked the Emergencies Act only after police forces agreed. It was a good decision, and we will now co-operate with the commissioner.
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- Apr/28/22 2:38:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, here is a fact: The government's invocation of the Emergencies Act was a dark day in Canadian history. Legal experts and Canadians know that there was no need to invoke the act, as Canada's existing laws are sufficient.
The government has since shown that it has no intention of providing any justification for stripping away Canadians' charter rights. They just simply want us to trust them. Really? We do not trust them. That is the issue.
How can the government possibly believe that Canadians trust them?
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- Apr/28/22 2:39:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I was saying before I was unfortunately interrupted by my colleagues, we spoke with Canadians during the illegal blockades. We spoke with the people who live outside of these chambers who were held hostage, who could not go to work, whose families could not take their children to school and who knew seniors who could not get access to public transportation because of the illegal occupation. It was the police who laid charges independently because of those interruptions, and it was only after we received their advice that we invoked the Emergencies Act. We had to.
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- Apr/28/22 2:45:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government continues to claim that a decrease in international trade necessitated the use of the Emergencies Act. The public safety minister testified that Canada lost $390 million a day in trade and that the government had no choice but to invoke the act because of the damage to the economy. However, new data from Statistics Canada is showing that international trade at both the Ontario and Alberta U.S. borders increased in February compared with the same time last year.
Does the minister not understand basic economics, or is he covering up the truth? Which is it?
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- Apr/28/22 2:46:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important for my colleague to draw a bright distinction between statistics and the real life impacts at the time of the illegal blockades. Those impacts saw the disruption of trade and travel at the Ambassador Bridge, where we do fully one-third of our trade with our most important partner, the United States of America, which, by the way, expressed serious concerns during the blockades. That was one of the other reasons, among many, that we had to invoke the Emergencies Act. It worked. We were able to restore public safety, and thankfully trade and travel are going on again.
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- Apr/28/22 2:46:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, despite the blockades at the Ambassador Bridge and Coutts being cleared before the invocation of the Emergencies Act, cross-border trade was up 16%. These figures raise obvious questions about the government's use of the act, a decision the government justified by threats to economic security. The Liberals did not do anything in 2020 during the rail blockades when economic activities stopped.
Does the government only use the Emergencies Act for groups it deems racist misogynists who oppose its heavy-handed COVID restrictions?
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- Apr/28/22 2:47:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is utterly astonishing to hear the Conservative members continue to bury their heads in the sand over the serious events that occurred during January and February. I would encourage my colleague and all members of the Conservative Party of Canada, who do not want to believe there was any interruption, to speak to the small businesses on Huron Church Road in Windsor, or to talk to the member for Windsor West or the member for Windsor—Tecumseh, who have spoken with those businesses. They were shut down. That was because of the illegal blockades. We are helping them. Trade and travel are going on again, and thankfully it is because we invoked the Emergencies Act.
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