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House Hansard - 137

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 29, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 137 - Nov/29/22
Mr. Rhéal Fortin (Rivière-du-Nord, BQ)
  • Nov/29/22 2:58:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in a Radio-Canada interview on Sunday about the invocation of the Emergencies Act, the Minister of Public Safety defended himself, stating that the act has some shortcomings and needs to be updated. That was a candid admission that his government knew it had not met the threshold for invoking the act, but did so anyway. In a country governed by the rule of law, the end does not justify the means. Do the Liberals acknowledge and take responsibility for the fact that the precedent they set now authorizes any future government to suspend individual freedoms as it sees fit?
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Context: House Hansard - 137 - Nov/29/22
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, Lib.)
  • Nov/29/22 3:00:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague knows full well that all the criteria were properly met. We respected the rights of all Canadians in an important process. We also thought it was a good idea, when we established the criteria with the Rouleau commission, to ask the commission for suggestions and opinions on the possibility of modernizing the Emergencies Act, to listen to the experts. That is why we are looking forward to Justice Rouleau's recommendations.
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Context: House Hansard - 137 - Nov/29/22
Mr. Rhéal Fortin (Rivière-du-Nord, BQ)
  • Nov/29/22 2:59:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is precisely the precedent that the father of the Emergencies Act, former minister Perrin Beatty, was concerned about. When he appeared before the committee, he said that once the act has been used for the first time, the temptation will be to use it for other crises. He recalled that he had consciously included the specific criteria that must be met in order to counteract the arbitrariness and abuses that the old War Measures Act allowed for. The Liberals flouted these criteria when they invoked the act. Can the minister tell us what will prevent any future governments from using it arbitrarily to suspend individual freedoms?
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