Hon. Raymonde Saint-Germain: Senator Gold has never been so happy to hear my voice, even though he doesn’t know what I have to say.

Senator Gold, I don’t want you to consider daily question periods from now on as boring or trivial. I promise to ask you questions that will really make you think during this very short period for questions.

Esteemed colleagues, the invocation of the Emergencies Act brings up some difficult and painful feelings for me and for many of my colleagues from Quebec. These difficult and painful feelings remind us of a dark period in our shared history.

I was 19 years old in October 1970. I was a student in CEGEP, just one year away from starting university. I already had a keen interest in public affairs and democracy, as Quebec society was in turmoil at the end of the Quiet Revolution, which led to numerous reforms based on the values of equality, solidarity, economic development and openness to the world.

When I think of the 1970 October crisis, I often think of the horror I felt after those terrorist acts were committed so close to home. I am referring to the kidnapping of British diplomat James Richard Cross and then the kidnapping and tragic death of deputy premier and minister of immigration, labour and manpower, Pierre Laporte. I’ll never forget that horror.

I then saw the effects of the application of the now-repealed War Measures Act. I witnessed a democratic and lawful society suspend habeas corpus and trample on human rights.

I was appalled when I saw union members, journalists, artists, including several poets, and other citizens be arbitrarily arrested, abusively detained, and denied their rights of freedom of expression and association. In total, approximately 500 people were quickly stripped of their freedom on the grounds of mere presumptions, with complete disregard for the most basic principles of justice.

I was astounded by the violence, intimidation and unforgiving harshness that the application of the War Measures Act inflicted across Quebec. This is the context in which I thought about the government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act and in which I am rising to speak today, knowing full well that the War Measures Act was repealed in 1988 and replaced with the Emergencies Act.

I am aware of the lessons the government and the Parliament of Canada learned from these tragic events. I am also aware that the invocation of this emergency legislation, a law that must be enacted as a last resort, is a first in our country’s history.

[English]

The situation now is very different from the one of October 1970. First and foremost, the current Emergencies Act, adopted in 1988, is not as drastic as its predecessor and includes more oversight measures to prevent serious abuse. The application of this act requires consultation with the provinces and territories, with which the government has proceeded. While concerning situations happened in other provinces related to what is now called the “Freedom Convoy,” so far only Premier Ford, of Ontario, has publicly stated support for its use in order to resolve the situation affecting the city of Ottawa and the province of Ontario. It would not be acceptable, however, that this act be enforced on the territory of other provinces, such as the province of Quebec, without consultation and consent from the provincial and territorial governments.

In this regard, the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, has been very clear in affirming the non-necessity of the application of this act in Quebec. I quote him in French:

[Translation]

We don’t think it is necessary, and we saw the proof last week, in Quebec City, where police forces and the Sûreté du Québec kept things under control. Also, I believe it’s time to unite Quebecers, not divide them.

[English]

It would be unacceptable if indeed this act were to be used on Quebec territory in spite of the will of the premier and, indeed, all the members of the National Assembly. Furthermore, and unlike the revoked War Measures Act, the Emergencies Act requires parliamentary oversight. Indeed, a parliamentary review committee, composed of parliamentarians from both chambers of Parliament, will diligently review the responsibilities arising from this crisis declaration. This parliamentary committee will lead an inquiry into the circumstances that gave rise to the declaration and the measures taken to deal with the crisis.

It is our duty as senators and parliamentarians to proceed with this review with the utmost seriousness and consideration.

Additionally, the Emergencies Act also differs from its predecessor by the fact that it is subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights. As such, fundamental rights should not be limited or abridged, even in a national emergency. Any actions taken in the context of this act must be limited to these considerations as well as proportionate to the degree of urgency.

Finally, this act is subject to exhaustive debate and approbation from both chambers of Parliament, which we are doing today, as we are now demonstrating it.

The first question we must now ask ourselves is whether invoking the act was necessary to put an end to the occupation in Ottawa and blockades around the country.

Obviously, the situation had festered long enough and action was required. Even considering the recent successful police intervention, the infringement on the citizens’ fundamental rights had gone on too long. In the recent weeks, we have surrendered a part of our capital city to protesters. While these protesters have the right to oppose the decisions of the Government of Canada, they do not have the right to take hostage a population, to block bridges and roads and threaten the proper functioning of a democratic country.

Even strategic access points, such as highways and airports, were targeted in total contempt of the law and of the citizens’ freedom. The situation in Ottawa was illegal, highly disruptive and had its own set of security issues, which simply could not be ignored. In an extraordinary occurrence, the work of both chambers of Parliament had to be suspended because of the actions of protesters, resulting in delays in debating this crucial act. This is unacceptable.

What about the heavy economic consequences that emanated from the blockades and their inevitable impact on the Canadian economy, on local businesses and ordinary citizens? They had to be taken into consideration. Daily policing has cost at least $2.5 million, and this is with no mention of the still-closed businesses and trade delays caused by the blockade.

A second essential question we must ask ourselves is: Were the extraordinary powers conferred by the Emergencies Act really essential and really unavoidable to putting an end to the threat of another illegal occupation? Those powers are truly extraordinary: the prohibition of public assembly and travel, the order of evacuation of people and private property, the use of specific property, the power to direct individuals and companies to render essential services and more.

So now that an end was put to the illegal occupation of Parliament Hill in downtown Ottawa because of the application of the act, what justifies its application for the remaining 22 days provided for in the proclamation declaring a public order emergency? This has become the key question.

We must ask ourselves if the invocation of the Emergencies Act passes the Oakes test. What is the Oakes test? In 1986, the Supreme Court in R. v. Oakes created this two-step balancing test to determine whether a government can justify a law which limits a Charter right.

First, the objective to be served by the measures limiting a Charter right must be sufficiently important to warrant overriding a constitutionally protected right or freedom. Second, the party invoking section 1 must show the means to be reasonable and demonstrably justified. This involves a form of proportionality test involving three important components.

To begin, the measures must be fair and not arbitrary, carefully designed to achieve the objective in question and rationally connected to that objective. In addition, the means should impair the right in question as little as possible. Lastly, there must be a proportionality between the effects of the limiting measure and the objective: The more severe the deleterious effects of a measure, the more important the objective must be.

I believe we had on our hands, with blockades to strategic bridges and the occupation of our national capital, an urgent issue that needed imminent action by the government. Up to now, the act was used cautiously, with restraint, and only in specific locations. For my part, I believe the positive impacts on ordinary citizens, the economy and businesses far outweigh the limitations imposed on protesters.

We can study the implications of this act in a philosophical way, but we also need to be pragmatic and realistic. The danger facing our country was real and action was needed. Furthermore, following the three-week occupation, in a letter dated February 19 and addressed to Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety, and Bill Blair, Minister of Emergency Preparedness, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police stressed the ongoing necessity for those exceptional measures:

The prohibition of financial transactions to support unlawful assemblies is critical to bringing a peaceful termination of these assemblies, as well as serving as a deterrent for other pop-up illegal assemblies.

I tend to agree that while we have made tremendous progress in the last few days, we are not out of the woods yet. Extraordinary measures, such as the ability to freeze financial assets and control people travelling to strategic locations, is still very much necessary until we are confident that control is regained and that protesters have gone back to their homes.

The fact is that tensions are still running high in Ottawa. In the last few days, and particularly following the police intervention, staffers from my office, as well as, I am sure, those of many of my colleagues’ offices, have been subjected to abuse and violent threats by supporters of the so-called “Freedom Convoy.” Those threats came from domestic as well as foreign individuals, people calling for the government to be overthrown and sometimes, too often, for the Prime Minister and for members of the government to be executed.

In these times of high tension, we must remain vigilant to keep the peace that the police intervention allows us to enjoy here in Ottawa. I believe we must also have in mind the concept of the precautionary principle when deciding whether to extend this act for a period of 30 days. While we don’t know with absolute certitude if this act is necessary to retain law and order in our country, we do know that we can’t go back to illegal blockades and unlawful occupations.

That being said, I will now raise the concerns I have with further empowerment of the police with such extraordinary tools. By doing so, we need to ensure that we are not opening the door for abuses and infringement of rights. Are the checks and balances provided in the act sufficient to prevent abuses?

From what we have seen, we must congratulate our police forces for their professional and efficient way of removing children, vehicles and protesters. They have done so, for now, with tact and without serious injuries or death, despite the clear attempts at disinformation, namely false accusations of police brutality and harm to protesters.

Of course, the parliamentary review committee will be able to judge after the fact the judicious use that will have been made of these extraordinary measures allowed by the act, but this is not what we are debating today. Today we have to consider consent for the implementation of the Emergencies Act to be extended for the full 30 days, that is, an additional 22 days from today. What guarantees do we have that the intentions behind it is to ensure a return to public order and that it will not be usurped by the abuse of the extraordinary powers it once again confers on the police forces and the government?

I must also mention that although many of the protesters may have valid intentions and legitimate concerns, we cannot ignore the extremist movement being associated with the protests. We have all been shocked by the racist displays circulating freely around Parliament Hill, metres away from our highest democratic institution. It simply cannot be tolerated. This association with the extreme ends of the political spectrum is not limited to the displays we have seen. It has been well documented in the last weeks by government ministers and experts, such as David Morin, professor and co-chair of the UNESCO Chair on the Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism.

The situation we found and still find ourselves in is a failure, a failure resulting from what many independent and renowned safety experts have assessed as a lack of foresight followed by initial bad management from the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa Police Service.

These questions will have to be explored by the parliamentary review committee to ensure a similar situation does not happen again. We must learn why it is that the Ottawa police authorities did not take necessary and timely precautions to prevent this illegal occupation, while other cities like Toronto, Coutts, Windsor and Québec City were able to manage in similar circumstances.

Invoking the Emergencies Act should never have been required, but I am now left with the unpleasant impression that this measure was and still is necessary. It is now far too late, and we cannot repair the damage that resulted from the initial ineptitude of local authorities. We can only continue to mitigate them and manage the enforcement of the act in a sound, balanced and professional manner as we have done in last few days.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that increased powers were needed to deal with this quagmire and are still needed to maintain order in our capital. Who here in this chamber can say with certitude that, without the invocation of the Emergencies Act, the situation would have been resolved peacefully?

However, this does not mean giving carte blanche to those increased powers. In the February 14 announcement of his decision to invoke the Emergencies Act, the Prime Minister said that the actions taken would be, “. . . reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.” This was a strong commitment, and we could then only hope that it would prevent any form of abuse. So far it has worked, but we still can only hope, because we have no guarantees for the remaining 22 days.

This commitment still lies in the confidence and capacity of the police forces to act and to succeed without the military being called upon. The police, under the provisions of this act, are empowered to resolve the issue, and they have proven to be up to the task in the last few days. I am satisfied with the recent actions of the police. I only hope that this trend will continue and that we will not witness any kind of abuse that results in the situation worsening.

In a democracy, the right to free expression is vital if and when it is expressed peacefully. I wish for a continued and measured application of this powerful act, with respect for our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as principles of justice. At this stage, when we must acknowledge the failure to maintain law and order through normal means and channels, do we have the choice to deny competent authorities the exceptional powers and measures they still deem necessary to maintain law and order? Could these measures ensure that the citizens of Ottawa maintain the freedom they have finally found after difficult weeks of occupation? Will they allow businesses and their employees to get back to business? I would not want to be guilty of having taken a risk that would deprive them once again of their precious rights and freedoms. Those people have just gotten their freedom back. We now have to act cautiously.

Colleagues, had we been discussing the enforcement of the War Measures Act — the repealed law — today, I would never have voted for it. But we are not. The courts will likely also have the responsibility of judging the constitutionality of this act and its compliance with the Oakes test.

For my part, given the parliamentary responsibility that we now have to fulfill, and out of precaution, given the lack of certitude, I will vote in favour of the confirmation of the application for the remaining 20 days or so of the Emergencies Act — unless the government, which still has this option, deems it appropriate to put an end to the act earlier on the advice of the relevant authorities.

I will vote in favour of the confirmation of the application of the Emergencies Act, but I do so with deep regret. I will do so trusting that these extraordinary measures will continue to be targeted and taken with discernment. I will do so with the utmost reserve and with a precautionary principle in mind once again. By refusing to confirm the implementation of these exceptional measures, I would not want to be complicit in maintaining contempt for our democracy. Thank you. Meegwetch.

Senator Cordy: Honourable senators, I’m honestly disappointed to be here today debating the confirmation of a public order emergency. But colleagues, if we, as senators, are not concerned by the recent events in Ottawa, Coutts, Windsor, Surrey, Toronto and indeed many places across the country, and if we do not act, we will have failed in our service to all Canadians.

Our debate on this motion is most likely to focus on what happened here in Ottawa, as it was certainly the most egregious show of lawlessness perpetuated on city residents. Could the occupation of Ottawa have been prevented? Probably. Should the province have done more before now? We all saw the trucks driving to Ottawa. But, in the absence of any meaningful action before last week, I believe that the Emergencies Act remains the only way forward.

Let’s be clear: the invocation of the Emergencies Act was the first real attempt to remedy the situation in Ottawa, and that fact does concern me. We know, for instance, that law enforcement successfully dealt with the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge without such measures and successfully deterred protesters from occupying Queen’s Park, but here in Ottawa existing laws were not enforced for more than 20 days. Residents, quite rightly, felt abandoned by their municipal government and local law enforcement. I’m certain that the reviews and inquiries to come will enlighten us all as to why that was the case.

I share the belief of many of my colleagues and of Canadians from coast to coast to coast that had these protesters been Black Canadians, Indigenous peoples or homeless peoples, law enforcement would have been swift and quite possibly brutal. So let’s think about that for a few minutes, honourable colleagues, or probably for longer than a few minutes.

There is no doubt that the emergency orders have made it easier for law enforcement to deal with the situation in Ottawa. The orders made possible a substantial increase in human resources from across the country. It allowed officers from outside the Ottawa Police Service to enforce existing municipal and provincial laws without the need to deputize. The emergency orders also allowed for the travel restrictions that finally prevented the influx of weekend demonstrators from overwhelming the downtown core. And the order stymied the efforts of the occupiers to resupply their fuel and other provisions. The financial measures also made a difference by cutting off funds to resupply the occupation efforts.

Over the course of this debate, we are going to hear about public opinion on the focus of the protest itself, as well as on the actions of the occupiers. We have heard it already in the other place as MPs engaged in vigorous debate, firmly planted along predictable lines.

It is true that the Ottawa occupation has brought together diverse groups of people with a wide variety of grievances. Not everyone involved intended to cause such significant negative impacts, nor to harm their fellow Canadians. There were, however, many in downtown Ottawa who were significantly harmed, either financially because their place of employment was closed or because they feared for their safety if they left their homes.

Mask mandates, travel restrictions and lockdowns have all been put forward as complaints, most having nothing to do with the federal government at all. In fact, if the reasons for the protest were what I just stated, they would have left when Premier Ford announced further reductions of the restrictions, because, after all, that is provincial jurisdiction.

But even if misguided, I firmly believe in the right to protest here on Parliament Hill, as so many have done over the years without incident. Before COVID, I would say there were protests every day of the week. But, honourable senators, a protest is very different than an occupation.

Make no mistake — the original purpose of this protest, though it was cloaked as a protest about trucker vaccination mandates — even though we know that 90% of truckers are vaccinated, was clearly outlined in their own memorandum of understanding. The MOU was to have the Senate of Canada and the Governor General replace the government with a committee of the occupiers’ choosing. They planned to stay here in Ottawa until their demands were met.

We all know that’s impossible. We all know it’s a preposterous suggestion that had no chance of succeeding, but that’s not the point. Intent is the point, and that should worry us all.

Honourable senators, this was not simply a protest or even civil disobedience. It was lawlessness. As Senator Saint-Germain said earlier in her speech, my staff were also harassed when they walked to the office wearing a mask or when they walked to the grocery store wearing a mask.

Much of the defence of the Ottawa occupation rests in the suggestion that it was non-violent, that it was comparable to Canada Day with inflatable hot tubs, bouncy castles and a DJ. It sounds pretty good. I’m sure that it seemed that way to some, but most Ottawa residents would heartily disagree. Just because there was no looting, smashed door fronts or widespread rioting does not mean that it was non-violent. Violence is not just physical. It can be harassment, intimidation, stalking and disturbing the peace.

I have spoken with people who live in Ottawa, and I have listened to their stories. Downtown and Centretown Ottawa are home to some 25,000 people. More than 10% of them are seniors, and in the downtown area most affected by the occupation, more than 15% of the residents are over the age of 65. They are not “Karens,” nor are they people with six-figure salaries who only work 20 hours a week. According to the 2016 census, the median household income in Centretown ranges from $49,000 to $61,000 before taxes, depending on the specific part of the community in which they live. It is a vibrant, bustling neighbourhood filled with shops, cafés and people of all ages. While downtown conjures images of government office buildings, it is also home to thousands of people.

Ottawa residents don’t think they are better than anyone else. They don’t think they are special either. But no one should have to tolerate what the people in affected Ottawa endured for 24 days: horns blowing at all hours of the day and night in front of homes, loud enough to hurt a person’s ears and certainly not allowing people to sleep; fireworks set off right next to tall residential buildings housing families and seniors; homes reeking with the smell of diesel fumes; open fires and pigs on a spit in downtown streets; residents in masks being harassed and threatened, with some even being assaulted for refusing to remove their mask; attempted arson in one residential building, and mischief at the doors of another by attempting to lock the doors from the outside; power and water cut in a number of residential buildings after break-ins to their mechanical rooms; 911 phone lines being overwhelmed by calls and attempts to thwart law enforcement. That, honourable senators, is a disgrace. Journalists were harassed, spat on and physically attacked while on air. And for those who believe that the threat is over, the Rideau Centre was evacuated today due to an incident.

Businesses were swarmed by people refusing to abide by the provincial mask mandate. Businesses that have already suffered through so much of this pandemic and were looking forward to decreased restrictions after the last lockdown, including restaurants opening for indoor dining, had to close their doors because of the occupation.

The Rideau Centre, the fourth busiest shopping centre in Canada, was closed for three weeks, losing tens of millions of dollars in revenue and putting 1,500 people temporarily out of work. Of these 1,500 people, most would have been minimum wage workers living from paycheque to paycheque.

Honourable senators, that doesn’t sound like a Canada Day celebration to me.

Rampant lawlessness made the downtown core a scary and dangerous place for many who live and work here, and especially for Black, Indigenous and people of colour. No matter the pride and feeling of ownership that Canadians may have in their capital, Ottawa remains the permanent home of a million people. It is their city. Downtown Ottawa is not just office buildings and Parliament Hill — real people live here. Centretown is a diverse and vibrant community — real people live there. The market, bustling and lively — real people live there. Entire neighbourhoods have been occupied, and residents just want peace and quiet. They do not want this to happen again here or anywhere else. Honourable senators, neither do I.

Ultimately, our rights, guaranteed under the Charter, come with responsibilities. Personal choices have consequences, and the rights of individuals do not supersede our communal rights. And to those who think extremist sentiment is isolated to a few occupiers in Ottawa, I would ask you to spend a few minutes on Facebook, Twitter or TikTok and examine the more extreme elements lurking there. There is no doubt that we as a nation will have to have some very serious conversations about this in the future. The very near future, I would suggest.

Honourable senators, I understand that Canadians are frustrated. I understand that their lives were upended by COVID. We all want things to return to normal. We are all tired of this pandemic. I am as tired as anyone and recognize the privilege that I do not have to worry about my job.

It has been two very long years, but even now Canadians are overwhelmingly not divided. Millions of Canadians have come together to do what needs to be done in the face of an unprecedented crisis: being vaccinated, following public health advice and looking after the most vulnerable among us. They are the silent majority, persevering through adversity and doing what they must for the benefit of their fellow Canadians.

Honourable senators, we must continue to work together, just as we have all along, and together I am certain that we will emerge on the other side. These emergency measures are temporary, subject to parliamentary oversight and I believe appropriate to the situation at hand. That is why I will be supporting the motion that stands before us. Thank you.

[Translation]

Senator Gold: Senator Carignan, are you aware that the Alberta Minister of Municipal Affairs, Ric McIver, made a formal request for help from the federal government because he did not have the capacity to respond to the truck blockade? He said, and I quote:

[English]

Despite our best efforts to resolve this ongoing issue, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have exhausted all local and regional options to alleviate the week-long service disruptions.

As this complex and dynamic situation continues to impede the free and safe movement of not only Albertans, but also of critical goods and services vital to both the Canadian and American economy, we are looking to the Government of Canada for assistance.

[Translation]

Do you agree that this is yet further proof that there is a lack of capacity to act effectively?

Hon. Rosemary Moodie: Honourable senators, I do not think that any of us could have imagined that we would be here discussing the historic, grim moments of the past 23 days.

I know that we all feel an exceedingly heavy burden and some sadness for the events that have today brought us here that we must acknowledge, the actions that today we are tasked to take, actions that will be remembered by future generations.

On Monday, February 14, 2022, the Governor-in-Council on the advice of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness issued a proclamation of a public order emergency invoked for the first time in the act’s 34-year history. The government took this step after multiple weeks of an occupation that revealed the limited capacity of municipal and provincial authorities to act under existing measures.

After the trucks began to arrive in Ottawa on January 29, multiple reports began to emerge about the disruptive and disturbing and sometimes violent events. We saw the displays of the symbols of hate. Let us not downplay these. We saw the desecration of the National War Memorial and the caricaturing and appropriation of Indigenous culture.

People of colour were intimidated and harassed. And unlike the experience of the esteemed senator who spoke earlier, there are senators within this chamber who experienced that intimidation and harassment. I’d like to say that the fact that those who perpetrated this behaviour felt comfortable to do so amongst this crowd of protesters, and that is somewhat telling.

The Parliamentary Black Caucus spoke about this in the statement issued on February 4, in which they described the events that unfolded as completely unacceptable, saying, “These displays of hatred and violence offend Canadians and have no place in our country.”

I encourage all colleagues to take the time to read the statement of the Parliamentary Black Caucus, and take this opportunity to thank the over 170 parliamentarians who signed on in support of this call to action, that was fully endorsed by the senators of the African-Canadian group.

The statement proposed three actions: first, the prohibition of the public display of the Confederate flag and swastika, symbols of hate and terror; second, strengthening FINTRAC’s ability to collect information related to donations made through public fundraising sites; and third, a call for a joint parliamentary study to review the events surrounding the so-called Freedom Convoy.

As we all know, the Emergencies Act has issued two key regulations: an economic measure, and a measure to equip police and law enforcement with additional powers.

The economic measures align with the call to action of the Parliamentary Black Caucus’s request and we applaud the government for their responsiveness.

Honourable senators, the rise in use of online fundraising platforms is a reason for significant concern, primarily because they are the perfect venue for the laundering of large sums of money that can be used to fund illicit activities. We have examples. We heard many from Senator Gold. There are also jurisdictional examples in the United Kingdom where the site JustGiving was targeted by criminals for money laundering.

With the current limited mechanisms that authorities have to gain information on those who donated these funds to the protest, and with the limited accountability placed on fundraisers currently, we know little about what this money is being used for. Millions of dollars were raised for this protest, and we don’t know where the money has gone or what it is being used for.

Through recent reporting according to The Globe and Mail who obtained information from the GiveSendGo platform site, 43% of funds donated came from the United States; 56% of the donors were American. Honourable senators, it should concern us that this could represent an unprecedented intrusion into our domestic affairs by far-right fringe elements of the United States who do not espouse Canadian values.

We must be cautious to make sure that, as Canadians, we retain sovereignty over our affairs. Importantly, the use of the emergency powers in this instance immediately allowed financial intuitions to access the tools that they need to stop the flow of money into the occupation, and to ensure that funds have not and will not be diverted for illicit purposes.

I believe the application of these economic measures was strategically effective in the short-term and, in the longer term, will inform our actions as legislators on future legislation that will ensure careful and effective oversight of public fundraising sites.

The second emergency measure that was enacted was meant to provide further authority to police to enable them to effectively break up the occupation in Ottawa and elsewhere.

There has been much concern raised about whether these measures were necessary, concerns about overreach and that these measures might limit the right of public assembly. These are measures that serve to designate and to protect certain sites as critical infrastructure, and that make it unlawful for individuals to bring minors to protests.

First, let me say, unreservedly, that I support action that makes it unlawful to expose our children to risky and potentially volatile situations and to potential harm. It is their right to be protected and it is our role to protect them. Therefore, I applaud the provision in the Emergency Measures Regulations that pertains to minors and the Government of Canada’s sensitivity to this issue.

We know that children have been in the occupation, some of them in trucks, in the cold for weeks and breathing in polluted air from the idling engines. It was all the more concerning and disheartening to see children used as shields by protesters — their parents. Interim Police Chief Bell said, “. . . we’re seeing children put in harm’s way in the middle of a demonstration where a police operation is unfolding.”

He continues:

. . . we implore all the parents who have kids in there — get kids out of there, they do not need to be in the middle of this, it is not a safe place for them.

I am glad that the police made it their priority to care for children and clearly considered how these operations would impact them.

We also know that many children living in the downtown core have been affected by protesters, unable to sleep amongst the sound of horns and cut off from access to vital services. It is my hope that additional steps to analyze this and other measures using Child Rights Impact Assessment tools will be carried out to ensure that we understand the impact on children and can act in consequence.

Further, these emergency authorities have allowed police to integrate forces from multiple jurisdictions and to retake the city of Ottawa, while maintaining their safety and avoiding significant violence.

As critical resources are shifted to Ottawa, these measures also ensure that the ongoing broader protection of regions that are left with depleted resources are protected. It should also be underscored that these security resources continue to be needed to make sure that a renewed occupation does not take place in Ottawa or anywhere else in the country. We are already hearing from the authorities about renewed attempts since the protest was disassembled this past weekend.

Again, interim Police Chief Bell stated during a press conference last Friday that the use of the emergency powers by the three levels of government created the ability for police to use new and existing powers to deal with the occupation. He said, “Without the authorities provided to us . . . we wouldn’t be able to do the work we are today.”

For all of these reasons, colleagues, I believe that the government’s use of the emergency powers is both warranted and needed to bring the situation to a close and to maintain peace. I also believe the circumstances are dire enough to require significant action to supplement emergency measures taken by other orders of government. I will be voting in favour of this proclamation.

Honourable senators, the events and the discourse leading up to and during this occupation has been troubling. There has been much irresponsible rhetoric. We have seen that one’s political perspective has defined these events, has defined the perception of truth, has made it impossible for objective public discourse and has stood in the way of our appreciation of fact.

This is a critical time in Canada’s history. As we reflect on the events that have brought us here, we must focus on the troubling fissures that have been unmasked, that threaten to weaken the union of our Confederation and that threaten our democracy. We must work together to heal these divisions that today turn Canadians against one another. We must work to ensure that Canada remains an inclusive and united country, a country based on truth, peace, order and good governance. Thank you, meegwetch.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: We hear a “no.”

[Translation]

Senator Dagenais: Honourable senators, I want to start by saying that, like many of my colleagues, I will be voting against the invocation of the Emergencies Act, since it clearly constitutes an unjustifiable violation of fundamental rights and a shameful appropriation of power by a Prime Minister who has once again shown that he is unable to govern democratically and transparently.

I am in no way saying that we should have let the protests in front of Parliament continue, but a protest that got out of hand because of the Prime Minister’s inaction and incompetence hardly qualifies as a threat to our national security.

Inappropriate signs and posts on social media cannot be the sole basis for invoking the Emergencies Act. Other evidence is required; otherwise, we would be living in a constant state of emergency.

For Prime Minister Trudeau, the protests became more of a threat to his public image and his image within his caucus.

There is no reason that justifies using this law for the first time in Canadian history. It was passed to deal with real threats to our national security and sets out clear criteria that must be met before it can be invoked, criteria that have never been met by the current government.

This legislation, made available to the Parliament of Canada in 1988, contains strict rules that were adopted to ensure that no government would repeat the abuses committed during the October crisis in 1970, when Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the father of the current Prime Minister, invoked the War Measures Act.

Among the safeguards set out in the Emergencies Act of 1988, there is the one requiring the federal government to consult the provincial governments ahead of time.

It is easy to see from the reaction of some premiers in the country, that no consultation worthy of its name was held. This lack of consultation shows us just how much the younger Prime Minister Trudeau disdains, like his father sometimes did, the rules of democracy, provincial jurisdictions and the fundamental rights of people who do not think like him.

The illegal occupation of a downtown area by truckers is not an insurrection, especially when there were no reports of violence done by those who wanted to be heard. They were just angry citizens.

The government and the Senate of Canada do not have to pass laws and use measures against them that are frankly dictatorial. If action had been taken at the right time, this siege on Parliament Hill would not have dragged on for three weeks.

Let us come back to the Emergencies Act of 1988. Colleagues, I have said it before and I will say it again, an Emergencies Act is not necessary for dismantling the barricades, arresting a few holdouts and towing away trucks. We just need a leader at the head of the country, a leader who is capable of taking responsibility at the right time to prevent the situation from deteriorating.

To invoke this special act, the government was also required to prove to us that there was no other option under the circumstances. Where was Prime Minister Trudeau during the first two weeks of the protest, and what did he do to engage with and appease the angry truckers? Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Justin Trudeau chose to hide at his cottage. Even worse, he threw fuel on the fire from afar by making provocative comments about the protesters and calling them whiners.

Unfortunately, I see, and I hope you will as well, that the leadership that a true statesman must show is just not part of Justin Trudeau’s DNA. Justin Trudeau prefers to dictate rather than engage in dialogue.

Today, I am a senator, of course, but I am also a former police officer who worked on the barricades during the Oka crisis, where there was certainly more violence than on Wellington Street in Ottawa. In 1990, no one called for the use of the Emergencies Act to resolve the conflict.

It was not even needed to get the Canadian Forces to come in and support the police. The situation was de-escalated through dialogue and mediation.

In addition to the Oka crisis, in recent years, there was the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, the G20 in Toronto and the G7 in Charlevoix, at which police were able to control professional international protesters — yes, I said professional international protesters — without the need for the Emergencies Act.

I repeat: A protest is not an insurrection.

It is a shameless lie to say today that the police needed the Emergencies Act to deal with the trucker protests.

A quick review of the police powers clearly shows that all the police forces tasked with policing the movements of truckers had all the authority required to respond and even to requisition tow trucks to seize and move the trucks that were parked on Wellington Street.

Why did they not do something right away? There must be, one day, a thorough review of the timeline of decisions that were made. That will come, I hope, once the dust has settled.

I will say it again: The necessary powers existed three weeks ago, two weeks ago and last week. They already existed in the current laws of the land, without the need for a draconian law like the Emergencies Act.

The reality is that even before the Trudeau government invoked this legislation, the police managed to clear the Ambassador Bridge, between Windsor and Detroit, and the Coutts, Alberta, border crossing, both without violence.

How and why? How? Simply by having the police enforce the laws in place. Why? Because the behind-the-scenes command of the operations at the Ambassador Bridge and at Coutts was assumed by the President of the United States, not the Prime Minister of Canada.

In short, Joe Biden’s leadership was all it took for Canadian police officers to take action. I would submit that the economic stakes, which were very high for the Americans, were probably a significant factor in how quickly they sought action at the border crossings.

Here in Canada, economic issues are unfortunately too often ignored so as to make room for Liberal partisan politics. On that note, how can we forget what happened just two years ago?

In February 2020, Prime Minister Trudeau demonstrated a clear lack of concern for Canada’s economy by failing to intervene when rail blockades were put in place by the Wet’suwet’en communities and their supporters in British Columbia; Belleville, Ontario; and Saint-Lambert, Quebec.

The 2020 protests had far more serious economic consequences than the Wellington Street protest. Every day, tens of thousands of citizens could not get to work, and CN had to cancel services and lay off hundreds of employees because the railways were being blocked by people protesting the construction of a pipeline.

This went on for weeks without Prime Minister Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act, even though his Minister of Transport, Marc Garneau, told the media that this crisis would derail the country’s economy.

Let’s ask ourselves why. Let’s also ask ourselves if there are two classes of protesters in Canada. If I recall correctly, just one week after the start of the rail blockade, Prime Minister Trudeau asked Minister Marc Miller to listen to the grievances of the Indigenous communities’ representatives.

In 2020, just two years ago, the government listened, refused to use force to end the rail blockade, and instead chose to engage in dialogue with the protesters.

Did you hear anything about the government being willing to open a dialogue with the truckers who were blocking Wellington Street? I didn’t, and yet that is an essential prerequisite for invoking the Emergencies Act.

Where was Justin Trudeau after the first week of the trucker protest? Where was he after the second week? Let’s think about it. What kind of credibility should he be given today when he tells us that we absolutely have to invoke the act because this is an urgent situation?

Earlier, I spoke about a lack of leadership. Now, we can talk about political inconsistencies as we compare how he dealt with the 2020 blockades with what he did this year.

I’m inclined to think that Liberal MP Joël Lightbound was right when he said that his government was doing everything in its power to use the COVID-19 crisis as a tool to divide Canadians for partisan purposes. The number of people who share my opinion is growing rapidly.

I now want to talk about another argument the Trudeau government gave for invoking the Emergencies Act, and that is the protesters’ secret foreign funding.

According to the government, we need to allow Canada’s law enforcement agencies to crack down on the freedom convoy’s foreign funding in Canada by giving them the power to freeze the organizers’ bank accounts.

That is very disappointing to hear, because the government is basically stating publicly that CSIS and FINTRAC were not doing their job before the Emergencies Act was invoked.

Our intelligence service, which is well connected to its U.S. counterpart, received all the information it needed on a daily basis to assess the situation, but its legendary discretion with respect to its work methods means we will never know everything about the alleged financial threat that the Prime Minister exploited to invoke the Emergencies Act.

If I am wrong to say that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is very effective, then it is high time to do something to reinforce its powers. Unfortunately for the Prime Minister, that is not what I have heard from the many witnesses who have appeared before the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence in the 10 years I have been a member.

Now let’s talk about the seizure of firearms by the RCMP, which is one of the government’s political arguments for invoking the Emergencies Act. According to the RCMP, the weapons seized at the border were destined for truckers in Alberta. I will draw your attention to the fact that the RCMP was able to carry out this seizure without using the Emergencies Act. In fact, I would like you to note that at no time did the Trudeau government demonstrate that these weapons could be used to overthrow the government by force.

Let’s think about this for a moment. The government can’t allege a serious insurrection solely based on a weapons seizure at the border of a Canadian province. I suggest that the government ask law enforcement to patrol around the Akwesasne Mohawk community, where they could easily intercept trucks coming into Canada every week with illegal weapons.

None of this seems to bother Prime Minister Trudeau, even though organized criminal gangs are using these guns to murder teenagers in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Where does the Prime Minister go to hide when the police ask him to pass laws on handguns, something that would at least save lives?

As a final point, let’s talk about an essential aspect of implementing the Emergencies Act of 1988. Under this act, the government is required to form an independent committee of inquiry into the use of the act 60 days after its enactment. The committee must report to Parliament within 360 days. That’s all well and good, but how can we trust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when it comes to an independent and comprehensive review of decisions and actions?

Remember that it was this same Prime Minister who prorogued Parliament, in August 2020, halting the work of three House of Commons committees that were looking into the WE Charity funding controversy. That alone raises doubts in my mind.

Transparency is not a value cherished by the Liberal Party of Canada or its leader. They care so little about transparency that not one member of the government was willing to participate in a Committee of the Whole of the Senate to answer our questions. That is nothing less than a display of disrespect for this democratic exercise.

We are here to debate the utility of the Emergencies Act, an act that actually is no longer required, now that Wellington Street has been cleared. This act that we are debating symbolizes the weakness of the current Prime Minister, who is doing everything he can to save his image, as he is seen to have dragged his feet on this matter and on other important files that land on his desk.

In case anyone thinks that I am exaggerating, here are several examples of the government’s inaction: the rail blockades by members of the Wet’suwet’en community in 2020; the policy on Huawei’s potential interference in national security; the creation of a tax on Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, the web giants also known as GAFA; the appointment of an ambassador to France; the replacement of the Canadian Armed Forces’ obsolete equipment; and, finally, access to drinking water in Indigenous communities. I will stop there.

Is it any surprise that the Prime Minister is trying to shove an act reserved for exceptional situations down our throats because he once again dragged his feet? The trucker protest was certainly not an exceptional situation, since the occupation could have been shut down after just a few days without the use of any special measures.

Senators, we have a duty not to give in to the political and legislative transgressions of a Prime Minister who did not deal appropriately with a situation that required leadership, openness to discussion, and a backbone. Canada deserves better than a Prime Minister who governs the country from the comfort of his cottage.

As a senator, I do not want to go down in history for approving this act, as the NDP members in the other place did yesterday evening while holding their noses. Bear in mind that, without the repugnant complicity of the NDP, this act would not be before the Senate today. Thank you.

Hon. Yuen Pau Woo: Honourable senators, it is ironic that we are debating the imposition of emergency measures at what appears to be the tail end of a COVID crisis that we have been living through the last two years.

You may recall that there was much talk about invoking the public welfare criteria for emergency measures in the early days of COVID, but nothing came of it. Fast-forward 24 months and we suddenly find ourselves under the Emergencies Act, not for public welfare, which would have been appropriate for a health emergency, but for public order. This is more than a curious bookmark in our COVID saga, and I will return to it at the end of my speech.

The crux of today’s debate, however, is not the criteria for the invocation of the Emergencies Act, even though I know many senators will want to focus on that important legal test. The more important underlying issue, I believe, is whether you consider the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protests — three weeks in, on the day the act was invoked, with no end in sight — to be an acceptable exercise of the protesters’ rights and freedoms and, hence, be allowed to continue unabated.

I am less interested in the source or sources of the protesters’ discontent than I am in the cumulative effect of their actions, since my point would apply regardless of the type of freedom espoused by the protesting group. If you believe that the Ottawa protests should have been allowed to continue for reasons to do with constitutional protections, legitimate civil disobedience or a belief that the disruptions caused by the protesters are an acceptable price to be paid in a democratic society, then your position on this motion should be very simple: You should vote against it. But if you believe that the protests — again, not protests in the abstract, but these particular protests that have been going on for three weeks and which, until a few days ago, had no end in sight — if you believe that these protests had to be stopped, then the only question remaining is how to make that happen.

I have not heard too many parliamentarians argue that the disruption caused by the Ottawa protesters is acceptable and that we should have let them continue to protest, so I am proceeding on the assumption that there is broad agreement that the protests had to end. If I am wrong in my assumption, I hope you will stand up and say very clearly that you support the right of the Ottawa protesters to continue. That will, in turn, clarify the basis on which you presumably oppose the motion. I would disagree with you, but at least we can understand each other’s position and how we came to different conclusions.

Let me turn now to arguments that, on one hand, accept that it was necessary for the protests to end but, at the same time, are against the use of the Emergencies Act. One may, for example, hold the view that the federal government could have negotiated an end to the protests and thus avoided invoking emergency powers. Bear in mind, however, that the protesters were demanding, among other things, the end to all COVID mandates and the overthrow of the government, with the help of the Senate, no less; and they were insistent on not removing their trucks, trailers and trampolines until the Government of Canada revoked the entirety of COVID-related restrictions.

On what basis would a duly elected government even contemplate negotiating with a mob to, first, overturn public health measures that most Canadians support and, second, defrock itself via the decree of a self-appointed group of noisy protesters? It is one thing to acknowledge pandemic fatigue, which all of us are experiencing; it is quite another to succumb to mob rule.

For all the huffing and puffing about how the Emergencies Act subverts democracy, let’s be very clear: What the protesters were calling for is the very definition of democratic subversion. To leave their demands unchallenged or, worse, to validate those demands by negotiating with them is to aid and abet the subversion and would amount to an abdication of governmental responsibilities.

A more compelling argument against the invocation of special powers is that there was no need for them in the first place. This would be the case if there are existing authorities on the part of the provincial or federal governments to effectively bring the protests to an end. But if those powers existed — for example, through the states of emergency declared by both the City of Ottawa and the Province of Ontario — why were the protests not curtailed after emergencies were declared? There are two possibilities: The first is that the powers of the province and municipality were insufficient to disperse the protesters; the second is that the leadership of those jurisdictions were unable or unwilling to exercise those powers.

The first reason amounts to a justification for the Emergencies Act. On the second point, some might argue that the unwillingness of a provincial or municipal government to exercise their powers does not justify the federal government invoking the Emergencies Act. However, the decision on whether to invoke the act is based not only on whether local authorities have the powers to respond to emergencies, but also on whether those authorities are capable of doing so and whether those capabilities are likely to be effective.

It seems reasonable to me that the federal government concluded that, after three weeks of disruption, their subnational counterparts did not have the capability to exercise whatever powers they had at their disposal. The fact that the Government of Ontario supports the Emergencies Act lends further credence to the appropriateness of its use.

One can, of course, speculate about the reasons for insufficient action on the part of the municipal and especially the provincial government, but that is beyond the scope of this motion and is ultimately a matter for the electorate to contemplate.

A third line of argument against the Emergencies Act is that even if the protests are intolerable and existing authorities are insufficient, the thresholds set out in the act have not been met, in particular, the definition of a national emergency. Under this view, the best one can hope for is the application of any existing laws against individual protesters and the use of general policing efforts to contain the protests until they, in the fullness of time, petered out. I would call this the “suck it up” school of thought, and it is, of course, exactly what Ottawa residents were asked to do for the last four weeks — suck it up.

And so, it boils down to whether the thresholds have been met. But who decides and how is the decision made? Here is Perrin Beatty, then Minister of Defence in the government of Brian Mulroney, testifying before Parliament 34 years ago to the day:

When the country is threatened by a serious and dangerous situation, the decision whether to invoke emergency powers is necessarily a judgement call — or more accurately — a series of judgement calls. It depends not only on an assessment of the current facts of the situation, but even more on judgements about the direction events are in danger of moving and about how quickly the situation could deteriorate. . . .

He goes on:

. . . the decision to declare an emergency is an exercise of political judgement and the Parliament of Canada is obviously an appropriate forum for questioning that judgement.

Which is where we are today, and why I believe the key question in coming to your judgment, my judgment and the judgment of this entire chamber is the question I posed at the opening of my speech: Was the “Freedom Convoy” protest and its crippling effect on residents, small enterprises, municipal services and our very system of government — three weeks in and with no end in sight — something that had to be stopped in relatively short order?

I believe the answer is yes. Here is the Oxford English Dictionary on the definition of “emergency”: It is, inter alia, “. . . a state of things unexpectedly arising, and urgently demanding immediate action . . .”

I think we can agree that it is an “emergency” when hundreds of vehicles descend on the nation’s capital and entrench themselves on major streets in Ottawa, resulting in massive disruption and economic loss to residents of the city. But was it a “national” emergency? Well, the object of the truckers’ protest was the national — i.e. federal — government, and the epicentre of the disruption was Parliament Hill, which is the seat of the national government. Even setting aside protests in other parts of the country and the real risk of further proliferation of protests, the fact that the mother of protests was in the nation’s capital makes it, I believe, a national emergency.

I disagree with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which believes that the invocation of emergency measures was unwarranted because, to quote their Executive Director, “Disruptive protest while often unlawful . . . can be the most effective way of raising awareness.”

The CCLA opposed the Emergencies Act when it was introduced in 1988, so it is not surprising that they would oppose the first use of this bill more than 30 years later. Having reviewed their submission on what was known as Bill C-77 in 1988, I am sympathetic to some of their reservations. I appreciate the CCLA’s concern that the use of the Emergencies Act in this instance should not result in what they call the “normalization” of emergency powers.

But I put to it you, colleagues, that the greater risk today is the normalization of a style of protest that paralyzes critical infrastructure; holds siege to the nation’s capital; punishes businesses, workers and residents who live around the areas of protests; and seeks to overturn government policies by ransom.

That is what we seek to not normalize. This kind of unlawful and disruptive protest, regardless of the cause behind it, can indeed be the most effective way of “raising awareness,” as the CCLA casually asserts, but it is a dangerous road to go down.

Even if we can agree that the invocation of the act was necessary, no one should be celebrating the curtailment of civil liberties, and we should all seek to find the earliest possible time to end the emergency powers. That is the ongoing job of Parliament and one which we should turn our minds to immediately after confirmation of this motion with the formation of the parliamentary review committee.

It is also important to stress that supporting the use of the Emergencies Act in this instance does not amount to supporting the law in its entirety. In the same way that there was a vigorous public debate at the time of Bill C-77’s introduction, the invocation of this act three decades later should prompt another spirited examination of its provisions.

After all, the world in 2022 is much different from that of 1988. Think of the World Wide Web, social media, GoFundMe and its equivalents, crypto-currency as well as state and non-state foreign interference, all of which are relevant factors in the current case. Personally, I think the definition of “threats to the security of Canada,” which is taken from the CSIS Act, is too broad, but that is the subject of a different debate for a different time.

Honourable senators, I too am weary of COVID restrictions. The good news is that we seem to be coming out of the coronavirus tunnel, which means that the mandates will be progressively relaxed, perhaps to the point where the only public health mandate remaining is the one which you apply to yourself, according to your risk tolerance. But we cannot and should not lift the mandates because a noisy mob says it is time to do so.

In our yearning and haste for normalcy, we must remember that coronaviruses do not share our priorities. We do not know if another variant of COVID-19, perhaps one more virulent than Omicron and Delta, is just around the corner. And if that variant does show up with ferocity, we cannot let our impatience with restrictions get in the way of sound public health directives, including the possibility of further lockdowns.

That is why the truckers’ protest should be seen not just in terms of public order, which was the basis of the invocation of the Emergencies Act, but also public welfare. Now, the government does not appeal to the “public welfare” criteria for its justification of emergency powers, but it is important to not lose sight of the link between public order and public welfare. The loss of one has an adverse effect on the other.

This is not the time to be cavalier about public order, especially when it is so closely connected to an issue of public welfare. Giving in to demands to disregard public health directives may be relatively benign at the tail end of the current pandemic, but it will be disastrous for the next one.

Honourable colleagues, I will vote in favour of this confirmation motion and hope that you will support it as well.

Hon. Patricia Bovey: Honourable senators, as I have said, while more certainly needs to be done on issues arising out of earlier protests, action is being taken by governments and society as a whole.

This past month in Ottawa, however, has been something different, as have been the protests in Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia, which have come with a wide range of demands, even to taking over the government. To my mind, it was not a peaceful tone and, as we know, in Coutts firearms were found.

While crowds have been dispersed from Parliament Hill and downtown Ottawa, they do continue elsewhere and we have all heard of the potential of their popping up in different locations. Indeed, at noon today we received a situation advisory about what was going on at Rideau Centre. One of our members was locked into a building in which he was visiting. An hour later, a hold-and-secure advisory was announced at 1 Wellington Street and the Senate of Canada Building.

The protests at the Manitoba Legislative Building in Memorial Park in downtown Winnipeg have drawn the concern of many, including our mayor. Likewise, it too is compromising the lives of those who live in that part of Winnipeg. If it was summer, with my windows open, I too would have heard the noise and the trucks.

In downtown Winnipeg, they are also unable to sleep. They have a fear of going out and have seen their neighbourhood filled with trucks. I have had many calls from my neighbours about the anxiety even their pets have. So the concerns do continue.

What we have seen transpire in Ottawa since January 28 has morphed into what I see as a very misguided use of legal right to assembly and, indeed, it has become a lawless occupation which rendered the many Ottawa citizens who live downtown and in the ByWard Market virtual prisoners in their homes. They faced incessant noise, threats, the pervading smell of diesel and a fear of going out, especially when wearing their masks.

I have heard of parents in different parts of Ottawa being in parks with their children and being harassed for wearing masks. Citizens of Ottawa missed work. Businesses were shut. Millions of dollars were lost. I could go on. We could talk about the other sites as well.

I’m sure we are all aware of the harassment of our staff, especially those of visual diversities and — as was so aptly noted by Senator Moodie — I would like to say a thank you and express a concern for those who work with us.

I have heard my colleagues’ opinions on the enactment of the Emergencies Act. While I appreciate the concerns of my colleagues, I have concluded that, given this unique situation, the act is necessary at this time.

We have all heard the arguments regarding whether the threshold for implementing the act has been met. I believe that threshold has been met. Those arguments will be ongoing for a very long time after this situation has passed and, indeed, we all know there are many such legal arguments playing out as we speak.

My reasons for supporting the use of this instrument are not complicated. We need to uphold civic responsibilities and real freedoms fought for and died for by our parents and grandparents in the past and by our military members today. Those freedoms come with responsibilities, as Senator Cordy said earlier.

[Translation]

I think that the objectives of the Emergencies Act have been adapted to address the issues we are facing. I also believe the measures are justified, since they specifically target the people who were occupying our capital city and who were a threat to our international trade and our economy. I am referring to the truckers, the vast majority of whom opposed what happened.

[English]

I also do not believe we should be subject to foreign donors funding civil unrest in Canada. I, quite frankly, am upset by the number of people who were part of this occupation who have come from beyond our borders. I am very aware of the many American licence plates that were here in Ottawa and are currently in Winnipeg.

We are a sovereign nation and we should expect our government to defend that sovereignty. This, for me, is a basic concept.

The measures expire in 30 days. The act is subject to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Parliament will have the ultimate say in approving the implementation and repeal of the act while monitoring its use. These measures seem a reasonable response to what has become an unreasonable situation for many Canadians.

Honourable senators, the spread of disinformation amongst our population regarding public health measures during a pandemic which has taken the lives of so many is very concerning. We have all been touched by those who have died or been terribly ill with this virus, and we can’t count the number of families who have had their lives changed irrevocably.

Not to be vaccinated at this point, despite the scientifically proven effectiveness of vaccines, is extremely disappointing. The anti-vaccine rhetoric, which has been shared online for any variety of unscientific reasons, has become tremendously concerning. There is no easy solution to this and it will remain an obstacle to our recovery. That is unfortunate.

This country is very close to reaching the finishing line regarding the virus. We have come to this point through following public health guidelines, getting vaccinated, staying home when requested to, missing family time, foregoing travel and sacrificing out of respect for one another’s health and well-being. We have come too far to make these sacrifices not pay off for more normal times which we all want and need.

This is not the time to shut down trade, as the convoy forced. This is not the time to occupy the nation’s capital, as it has. This is not the time to make life worse for everyone here, as was done, especially when we were all so close to the end game.

These actions are not helpful. They are preoccupying us all when we should be working together to restore our economy, our lives and not be divided.

[Translation]

In closing, I want to thank the vast majority of Canadians who have followed the guidelines throughout the whole pandemic. Thank you to those who made sacrifices to get us this far. Thank you to the Canadians who put their neighbours first and got vaccinated.

[English]

Thank you to all those who went to work, kept our hospitals and health systems going in the most difficult of times, those who kept food on our tables and our children learning, either at school or at home. I really want to thank our front-line workers who have cared for us through this ordeal. We are indebted to you.

I also want to pay a heartfelt tribute to the police who have undertaken a complex initiative these past days with care, honesty, transparency and professionalism. I applaud the many forces from various parts of the country that have joined together to make our capital ours again. While I’m sad that we need this motion, I am supporting it. Thank you.

Hon. Percy Downe: Honourable senators, as we consider the Emergencies Act currently before the Senate, it’s clear that the federal government, which invoked the act, and the Parliament of Canada, which is voting on its passage or rejection, was forced into this position by the inaction of the Ottawa city council.

I had the pleasure of living in Ottawa for several years in the 1990s. We owned a house here, paid our taxes here and sent our children to school here. I can tell you that Ottawa is a lovely city. That’s why what was allowed to happen here over the last few weeks is so disappointing.

I hope the citizens of Ottawa pay close attention to whom they are electing to their city council this fall. I hope they elect city councillors who have the ability to learn about the Police Services Act and who show the ability to grow into their job and the responsibility that it entails. I hope they elect individuals who are more interested in putting in the work to do the job rather than their personal popularity or their media profile. Our national capital needs a much improved and substantially more competent city council. We don’t want another dysfunctional Ottawa city council putting our country in this position again.

The question before us, colleagues, is as follows: Was there a lack of proper laws resulting in the need for the Emergencies Act, or was there a lack of enforcement of existing laws? The hands-off treatment of the protesters here in Ottawa motivated others to take similar action as blockades and protests started popping up at border crossings across Canada.

After reading the act, I had a number of questions. First and foremost of which was: Is the Emergencies Act necessary, or is it an overreach? The main question and the heart of the matter is the section of the act that states that to declare an emergency requires a situation that, “. . . cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.”

Unfortunately, that question may be impossible to answer, at least for the time being, simply because we don’t know what we don’t know. What have our security and intelligence agencies discovered about who was behind these very well-organized protests? Were foreign governments involved in providing support or funding in order to generate unrest and division in our country?

When I worked in the Prime Minister’s office, I spent a good deal of time working on national security issues after the September 2001 attack in the United States. We can assume the federal government assessed the threats and acted accordingly when they declared a public order emergency. And we will be able to confirm that assumption, or determine that the government made a mistake, when we review the implementation of the Emergencies Act over the next few months. However, the seizure of weapons at the Coutts border crossing in Alberta, along with the laying of charges involving uttering threats, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and conspiracy to commit murder are obviously extremely serious.

Colleagues, we must remember that the people who protested for three weeks represent but a small portion of the population of Canada. The silent majority of Canadians are those who are fully vaccinated — over 85% of eligible Canadians. The silent majority of Canadians followed public health guidelines. The silent majority of Canadians worked hard to protect their fellow citizens: our seniors, children under five, those with an autoimmune disorder and those who, for whatever reason, cannot receive the vaccine. However, a small group of our fellow citizens kept asking, “What about me?” It was all about me, me, me, and to heck with everyone else.

The current and ongoing easing of public health restrictions is because so many Canadians have done and continue to do the right thing. We owe a debt of gratitude to health care workers and public health officials who have guided us through this pandemic.

As I stated, because of the failure of early, effective enforcement, the Emergencies Act became necessary to prevent a well-organized, well-funded minority from overthrowing all the efforts that the majority of Canadians have undertaken to help us get through these past two painful and difficult years of the pandemic.

I shall be voting in favour of the motion. Thank you, honourable senators.

[Translation]

Hon. Denise Batters: Honourable senators, I rise to speak to this Emergencies Act motion. What a sad day it is, honourable senators, that it has come to this, that this Trudeau government has invoked and employed the Emergencies Act on Canadian citizens before it could even be voted on in Parliament. Tear gas and batons and lines of police to shove back protesters chanting for freedom. Truck windows smashed, bank accounts frozen, promises to hunt down even those who chose to leave the protest voluntarily. Even now, with the bridge blockades and Ottawa’s protest cleared, the Prime Minister can’t tell us when the Emergencies Act and its extensive government powers will be lifted, only that his government plans to make some of the features of those extensive powers permanent.

The incredible division among Canadians in this moment is largely of Prime Minister Trudeau’s own making. He and his government have divided Canadians among themselves, vaccinated and unvaccinated, and through his incendiary language turned them on one another. From the time of the election onwards, Prime Minister Trudeau has used this public health emergency as a political wedge issue, without regard for the Canadians in the middle who have become collateral damage.

He has called them extremists, racists and says they are misogynists. Prime Minister Trudeau preaches tolerance, but says those who choose not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 “take up room” and questions, “Do we tolerate these people?” And when these Canadians — in many cases being people who have lost much or everything as a result of COVID-19 mandates — land on Parliament’s doorstep to have their voices heard, what does the Prime Minister do? Instead of hearing them out or empathizing with the frustration they are feeling, he doubles down and called them a “fringe minority with unacceptable views.” So each side dug in and we wound up with a three-week protest in front of Parliament and the unnecessary overreach of the Emergencies Act by this government.

Let us not forget it was Prime Minister Trudeau who counselled Indian Prime Minister Modi to engage in dialogue when 50,000 farmers blockaded the roads to New Delhi in 2020, a protest that went on for a year. Prime Minister Trudeau boasted, “Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest.” Yet he has refused from the get-go to engage in dialogue with the blue-collar people who were demonstrating right here on Wellington Street.

Honourable senators, throughout this pandemic, we have been fortunate to still collect our paycheques, to maintain access to our health plans and other benefits and to be able to work remotely from the comfort of our homes when necessary. Many of the people living downtown in this public service city have also been fortunate. But there are other Canadians who have had a very different experience during this pandemic. Many have lost their jobs, their businesses and their livelihoods, some as the result of circumstances, others due to vaccine mandates. The financial loss, social isolation and vilification promoted by the government have all resulted in a growing frustration that has culminated in the trucker convoy and blockades we’ve seen across the country.

In Saskatchewan and Alberta where many of these truckers came from, people were already suffering economic devastation prior to this pandemic because of the anti-energy policies of the Trudeau government. The ever-ballooning carbon tax is a further burden. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry has been vilified in this country. Only last week in B.C. we saw protesters violently attack the Coastal GasLink pipeline work camp with axes and terrorize workers, and certainly with no discussion of invoking the Emergencies Act in response from the government.

While this movement started from a place of resistance to vaccine mandates, it quickly expanded to become about freedom more generally. The more the government and the Prime Minister in Ottawa spoke divisively against the protesters, demonizing them and refusing to listen, the wider and more expansive the movement became.

Before I go too much further, let me be clear. I empathize with the residents of downtown Ottawa who have been most acutely affected by the protest here. They have had their lives and livelihoods disrupted. Understandably, they wanted it to end. This intrusion into their lives came at the tail end of having suffered through this pandemic, perhaps the most stressful and traumatic two years of many of our lives. And then to have to deal with this? The blaring horns at all hours of the day and night, the obstruction — who among us wouldn’t be saying enough is enough?

My office faces right onto Wellington Street, and I had a front-row seat to this convoy for the past few weeks. I can tell you that what I witnessed of the protesters was peaceful, organized and non-threatening. I do not tolerate harassment, intimidation or destruction ever, but I can honestly say that I personally did not see any of that behaviour exhibited by the protesters. I have been here in Ottawa during all three weeks of the protest, and I can say that in the last two years, I never felt safer walking home from my office at night. The protesters I met very much reminded me of the people I know in Saskatchewan — friendly, hard-working, patriotic Canadians. But I sensed in the discussions about the protesters in the media and among the privileged, chattering classes on Parliament Hill almost a fear of these working-class people who had invaded the city. Ottawa’s mayor called them yahoos and idiots. Others online maligned them as Nazis and terrorists. Everyone had an opinion about them, but certainly no one was talking with them.

It was widely reported that I posed in a photograph at the protest alongside my MP caucus colleagues from Saskatchewan during the protest’s first week. There were no protesters in the photo. There was an empty truck in the background with Saskatchewan flags on it. Certainly, nothing offensive. But in the Ottawa media this was considered controversial. We went to talk to some of the Saskatchewan truckers who congregated on Kent Street from towns like Stoughton, Southey, Carievale, Carnduff and Birch Hills. These truckers are our constituents, and it is our job as parliamentarians to hear them out, to engage with those we represent and to listen to their concerns. They drove all the way to Ottawa from those Saskatchewan towns — Birch Hills is almost 3,000 kilometres, or a 32-hour drive, away — to simply have a conversation. Like Prime Minister Trudeau will advise other world leaders to do, but which he obstinately refused to do himself when faced with the same situation here in Canada’s capital, like so many other situations, what this Prime Minister sanctimoniously prescribes for others he refuses to apply for himself.

To be sure, the Emergencies Act is intense legislation for a government to invoke. It should only be used as a last resort when no other laws can deal with a national security-threatening issue effectively. I submit that this Ottawa convoy falls well short of that bar. In the past, when this act — or more accurately, its precursor, the War Measures Act — was invoked, it was in relation to World War I, World War II and the FLQ crisis, which involved the murder and kidnapping of public officials and ongoing terrorist activities. These are the only times similar legislation was employed in the past. What is the national emergency this time? Dance parties and loud horns? Horns that, by the way, had long since stopped honking by the time this act was invoked due to a court injunction that the truckers complied with.

Honourable senators, just remember that when this government is long gone and another takes its place of a stripe you may not agree with. The Trudeau government has now set this as the precedent for invoking the Emergencies Act. Bouncy castles, loud horns, raucous partying and illegal parking in a four-block radius of downtown Ottawa. It’s annoying, to be sure. But is this a national emergency?

The federal government made no moves to resolve the Ottawa protest for three weeks, while the protesters were mere feet from the front doors of the West Block. If the situation were truly such a grave threat to national security that it rose to the level of employing the Emergencies Act, one would expect the federal government would have acted in some way — any way — to resolve it. But they did not. Prime Minister Trudeau simply refused to meet with protesters, then brought in the Emergencies Act as a first, not a last, resort.

When Deputy Prime Minister Freeland spoke on the issue, she said that the government used all the tools it had prior to the invocation of the act. What tools? Name calling? The Prime Minister disappearing for days on end? More name calling? What tools? The same tools they used for the railway blockades in 2020 that went on for 19 days, and for which the government still never invoked the Emergencies Act?

When the Prime Minister announced that he was engaging the Emergencies Act, he told Canadians it would be in a geographically targeted way, applicable only to those within the zones specified. Yet, we see in reality the federal government’s massive overreach in the proclamation declaring a public order emergency, which states that the public order emergency will apply “throughout Canada.”

Several of the premiers oppose the use of the Emergencies Act to deal with this situation, including the Premier Scott Moe of my home province of Saskatchewan.

Many legal experts agree this situation fails to meet the threshold for exercising the Emergencies Act. Among them are constitutional law Professor Dwight Newman, Advocates for the Rule of Law, Amnesty International, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the BC Civil Liberties Association, and even Paul Champ, the lawyer for those who successfully sought the court injunction against the horn honking of the Ottawa protest. They all agree this situation didn’t require the Emergencies Act.

Last week, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association announced that it is taking the government of Canada to court over the invocation of this act. The CCLA’s Executive Director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv called the use of the Emergencies Act in this unprecedented situation and a serious infringement of the Charter rights of Canadians. She stated that, by invoking the Emergencies Act, the government would be giving itself “. . . enormous powers to bypass the ordinary, accountable democratic process.” Mendelsohn went on to call “peaceful assembly,” which by any measure this protest has been, “a critical democratic tool.”

The BC Civil Liberties Association has further pointed out that the Emergencies Act should not be a stopgap measure to address the inaction of municipal police forces and provincial authorities. To be clear, they stated, governments have ample legal authorities without using the Emergencies Act.

Even Paul Champ, the Ottawa lawyer who went to court to put a halt to the incessant honking of horns by the truckers, agrees that the use of the Emergencies Act in this situation was government overreach.

. . . although I am acutely aware of the trauma experienced by Ottawa residents, I fully agree that the Emergencies Act is a dangerous tool that was not required.

Many legal experts shared a concern that by invoking the Emergencies Act for the Ottawa protest, the Trudeau government is normalizing the extraordinary law’s usage.

The BCCLA warns that the invocation of the act in this instance sets a dangerous precedent if our elected officials become comfortable with using excessive powers to target dissent in Canada. It becomes easier to use again, they argue, to stifle other movements such as Black Lives Matter or Indigenous land and water defenders.

Advocates for the Rule of Law, or ARL, agree that this situation sets a dangerous precedent:

. . . normalizing the declaration of emergencies, especially before other less intrusive (but still significant) measures have been attempted, threatens to render hollow the rights and freedoms guaranteed to all Canadians; it risks a gradual erosion of Parliament’s role in favour of executive power; and it amounts to a damning admission of a failure of state capacity.

But there is some evidence that normalizing emergencies may be the Trudeau government’s intention. Deputy Prime Minister Freeland has recently spoken of making some tools in the act permanent. We should all be worried about that, honourable senators.

For all its raucousness and disruption of traffic in downtown Ottawa, can anyone seriously believe this protest was a threat to Canada’s national security? Some will say that it spawned blockades at the Ambassador Bridge, disrupting one of our main trade routes with the United States. But that blockade and, similarly, the one in Alberta, were dispersed peacefully and nonviolently. And most importantly, without recourse to the Emergencies Act.

Meanwhile, both houses of Parliament were able to meet for weeks, mere steps away from the protesters. Prime Minister Trudeau and his senior cabinet ministers attended several Question Periods and House of Commons sittings in the West Block in person. If there was a true public order emergency, surely none of that would have been allowed to have occurred.

Honourable senators, consider all the moments of crisis in Canada since 1988 — and yet, the Emergencies Act was not invoked for any of those occasions; not for the standoff at Oka, not for 9/11 in which 25 Canadians were killed and not even during the October 2014 Parliament Hill shooting — and I remember that well, because I was locked in a caucus room for 10 hours with my colleagues throughout. None of those situations required the use of the Emergencies Act.

I fear that with this invocation, we are embarking on a slippery slope away from what Canada is famous for: its unwavering adherence to the principles of freedom and justice. These principles are why immigrants from around the world long to come to Canada. That is the reason so many of our ancestors came here, to escape tyranny. That is why my grandparents came to Canada from Ukraine 100 years ago. This country, this parliamentary system — the Westminster System — was founded out of the rejection of tyranny. The Fathers of Confederation feared not just the tyranny of the monarch but the tyranny of the majority, and we in the Senate are a key part of that system to stand up for the minority, to be their voice.

It has not been lost on me, nor should it be on any of you, that this building, now the Senate of Canada Building, where I deliver this speech today, is the very building where your Charter of Rights and Freedoms was negotiated. Think of that history, honourable senators, when you consider whether to allow this federal government to trample all over that Charter.

People on both sides of the political spectrum have expressed the view that the Trudeau government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act in this situation is considerable government overreach, and at this time I am reminded of the words of William F. Buckley Jr., who said, “The best defence against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.”

We need to assert ourselves, honourable senators, and reject this unprecedented authoritarian overreach by this federal government. Please join me in voting no to this Emergencies Act motion. Thank you.

Hon. Brent Cotter: Honourable senators, I want to begin by thanking colleagues for their deep and thoughtful remarks in this debate, even when we disagree.

I’m going to be speaking in support of the declaration, and I want to speak to three aspects of the issues. The first is personal, the second I would call decisional and the third institutional.

The personal. In the fall of 1970, I was in my final year of business school in Saskatoon. On a Saturday evening in late October, I attended a party at somebody’s house. As I arrived at the party, there was a group of six or eight young men, nearly all of them business school classmates, engaged in a heated discussion with one other person. The business school group was supporting the imposition of the War Measures Act in Quebec, the need to get lawlessness under control, and if a few rights got trampled in the process, a small price to pay.

The one other person was a law student. He patiently made his case to the effect that people were more than the sum of their economic parts, that they are sentient beings with rights and obligations that are the essence of who we are as humans.

I stood at the edge of this debate and listened. To be honest, I hadn’t thought much about these issues and human values. It was, for me, a life-changing moment. That eye-opening discussion was the single-most important influence in my decision to go to law school and begin a career in law. Rights and laws and the rule of law have come to matter a lot to me.

In a remarkable way, that moment and the influence of that law student, Henry Kloppenburg, now a brilliant, principled, courageous and somewhat eccentric Saskatoon lawyer, set me on a career path that brings me to this moment and probably the most important decision today that I will make in my professional life.

Now to what I will call the decisional. I won’t speak about Charter of Rights issues, but I would associate myself with the remarks of others, including Senator McPhedran, on this point. On the decisional, I think it is important to remove from consideration in our discussion and decision the argument that if something had been done earlier and better, we wouldn’t be in this fix. And therefore, we are entitled to withhold approbation of the emergency declaration. I agree that various actions by various actors could have been averted and moderated this crisis, but that is not the test today. It is, having gotten to where we are, is this declaration a reasonable course to be taken?

Here is another way of looking at it. Many have written that wiser decisions taken in 1919 or 1935 or early in 1939 might have averted World War II. Well, tragically they weren’t. But can you imagine if we were exercising this emergency power in 1939, we would have said that because somebody else did a lousy job averting war earlier, we would not join the war effort in 1939? To ask the question is to answer it.

On the question of a threshold for deciding, I’ve read widely the case of those who assert the threshold has not been met and the case of those, including the cabinet, who assert that it has. I have some background on these questions, but to be better informed I retained a distinguished constitutional law expert, Professor Wayne MacKay, to advise me. He’s a professor emeritus at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie in Halifax. In so doing, he identified 12 features, features of concern, that take us into the realm of national emergency. Virtually every single one of them has been mentioned in the debate today.

Nearly all of these are related to unlawful conduct. Some of this conduct could unquestionably have been addressed using existing powers, but much of it, particularly in Ottawa, could not have been achieved, certainly not without much more serious adverse consequences than actually occurred, and that’s important.

I want to focus primarily on the situation in the nation’s capital. I’m deeply troubled by this. We have seen protests in Ottawa before. They have been, for me, a sign of the health of our democracy. We have to get back to that state as soon as we possibly can. And I’m fine with people coming to Ottawa to protest in favour of courses of action that are unrealistic or legally impossible — say the removal of the Prime Minister by the Governor General and the Senate. But I’ve never seen protests of the like that we’ve seen over the last month where protesters transitioned their protests into an occupation of the centre of our nation’s capital and sought to leverage this illegal occupation to advance their various grievances but also, within some corners of that protest, some dark corners, to actually leverage the removal of the government by other than legal and constitutional means.

And exactly where was this illegal occupation occurring? Within metres of the beating heart of our national democracy and within metres of the office of the Prime Minister of our country.

Equally compelling for me in this argument is what happened when the emergency orders were exercised. One was the designation of the area around Parliament as essentially a no-go zone. Given where things had evolved to earlier last week, gaining control of this part of Ottawa effectively and with as little conflict as possible could only have occurred through the special powers conveyed by the regulations.

Second was the pressure put on the physical assets of protesters that coerced many to withdraw from the no-go zone, either with or without their trucks and other property.

Third was the use of the special authority to block a number of protesters’ access to funds which would otherwise have prolonged the occupation.

Lastly, I do not discount the benefit of expediting police actions, particularly in the rapid development of strategies that were exceptionally effective, professional and respectful of the rights of even the most difficult citizens, as Senator Plett and others have observed.

I’ve been involved in police oversight for nearly a decade. I have never seen such disciplined and effective policing in my life. I would add that there’s lots of blame to go around in this crisis, and public confidence is rightly shaken, but one upside is that the public confidence and pride in our law enforcement brothers and sisters has been greatly enhanced in this country.

I note that the police and police leaders, whom we have rightly praised in this chamber, have virtually universally stated that the authorities conferred by the declaration were necessary to resolve the crisis. In that respect, it seems unfair on the one hand to praise them and their efforts and then, on the other hand, to disregard their heartfelt and professional judgments of what these authorities needed.

Here is what is most compelling to me. These powers made it possible for the law enforcement officers to gain control and resolve this crisis in the safest and most honourable way possible, using these tools they said they needed and then used to do their jobs in ways that made all of us proud.

When all of this is added together, it satisfies me that the case has been made for the invocation of the emergency declaration.

Now to the institutional question, essentially how we should look at, how we should think about, our authority if we are to exercise it honourably. I want to make five points.

The first is about the Emergencies Act itself. Unlike the War Measures Act, it is a product of extremely careful modern thought — not perfect, as people have noted, but infinitely superior to its predecessor. I observed the work of the Mulroney government in 1988, and special credit goes to the Justice minister of the time, then Justice minister Ramon Hnatyshyn, a decent, fair-minded, much admired, even revered, son of Saskatchewan. The government put in place remarkable safeguards that were previously non-existent. I won’t repeat them here; I think you’ve come to know them well. They are remarkable, powerful, though imperfect, accountabilities.

My second point is that when we apply our minds to the use of this authority, I think the question for us is this: Was the decision of the cabinet a reasonable one, not necessarily the correct or even the best one but one of a reasonable range of decisions in the circumstances?

My third point in support of this is that the test for reasonableness seems to me to be a compelling one. We are essentially reviewing an administrative decision taken by the cabinet of our country. When this is done, provided the basic tests are met, the circumstances usually call for a significant degree of deference owed to the decision-making body. A common one to justify that is that the decision maker has special expertise. In our situation, I would not go so far as to say that a cabinet, any cabinet, has special expertise, but it often has more information available to it than we do. Here I think I am inclined to join the discussion of a couple of senators earlier on this question. Senator Lankin raised this question earlier as well.

Some of that information is not available to us and probably, in this context, should not be. To my mind, this has a certain equivalence to special expertise that is owed deference.

Here I’m not saying anything about this particular cabinet. It is a point regarding the institution of cabinet. Indeed, I would have made some decisions differently if it had been me, but the entity of the cabinet, any cabinet, is entitled to this deference, which in decisional terms means that we should support a decision that is in the range of reasonable decisions, of which I think this was one.

The fourth point relates to who we are. We are, by section 58(7) of the Emergencies Act, given co-equal authority with regard to the review of the emergency declaration, which we are doing now. This is a great power. The greater the power, the greater the responsibility we have to exercise it in a principled way. In this context, I want to make a few short points.

First, we are exercising a democratically granted authority. Secondly, a significant majority of the people in this country who are part of that democracy support the issuance of this declaration. This is not always determinative. We have duties that often cause us not to be bent by the will of the majority, but it is noteworthy in democracy terms. Third, a majority of the elected representatives in that other place have voted to support the declaration. This does not require us to do so as well, but it does encourage deference to the country’s democratic values, which we hold dear.

If we reach a different decision and revoke this declaration, we must be very clear in our minds. We must be convinced not only that the issuance of the declaration was incorrect, but that it was not even within a range of reasonable decisions this government could have made. Anything less is a failure of sober second thought, essentially a usurpation of democratic decision making.

That is related to my fifth and final point, what I would call consequential. I think we are all agreed, whether there is or is not sympathy for protesting occupiers, that much of their actions were illegal, and in some quarters the goal was to displace the sitting government through other than democratic means.

Many have observed within this chamber and in the other place and elsewhere that a vote on this emergency declaration is the equivalent of a confidence vote. I recognize Senator Dalphond’s observations, but I think we can say that this is an unbelievably serious decision for us to be taking. I don’t think we’re in the business, in this house, of confidence votes, but if we vote to revoke the declaration, it will have virtually the same effect or message. We, as a non-elected body, may well be creating the conditions that bring an end to this government. By doing so, we may well then achieve for the most seditious of the occupiers, exactly what, through their illegal occupation of our country’s capital, they most devoutly sought.

If you are inclined to revoke the emergency declaration, I urge you to give all of these implications very serious thought.

I would go further. It will invite questions in many quarters, perhaps more so than have ever occurred, regarding the legitimacy of this very institution. If we take this path, people are sure to begin asking of us not just who we are, but who do we think we are. Thank you.

Hon. Peter M. Boehm: Honourable senators, I rise to speak in favour of the motion before us today. It is my view that our country is dealing with a public order emergency that unfortunately requires the use of extraordinary and temporary measures.

What Ottawa, and indeed Canada, has been through the past month is unprecedented in our history. The combination of border blockades, the illegal occupation of a city — let alone our capital — the harassment and threats of violence against residents and journalists and the damage to businesses and our economic security — to say nothing of the explicit end goal of some of toppling our duly elected government — is not normal.

Protests and even riots are not abnormal in Canada. Quite the opposite: There were riots during the conscription crises in both world wars; the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919; the On to Ottawa Trek of 1935 and the subsequent Regina Riot. Montreal even saw riots in 1885 over, you guessed it, vaccines — smallpox at the time.

And, of course, there was the October Crisis of 1970 and Oka 20 years later. More recently there have been protests and blockades which have sometimes turned violent against pipelines and other projects. Some have been associated with major world events that Canada was hosting. I dealt with examples of this in my previous career, beginning with the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001.

Protest is a fundamental element of any functional democracy, Canada included. It is a right we all hold dear and one that must be protected. Here’s the problem, though: What happened in Ottawa was no mere protest. It was an occupation, and it certainly was not peaceful. I realize this is where opinion becomes sharply divided, but the absence of outright physical violence is not peace.

Particularly over the weekend during law enforcement operations in downtown Ottawa, we heard and read striking terms, including “front line,” “occupied territory,” and “gaining and losing ground.” This is usually reserved for dispatches from war zones. It is not how actions to disperse legitimately peaceful protests are described. This leads me to the War Measures Act used in October 1970. Then, as now, parliamentarians decried the perceived government overreach. This is much the same situation the current government faced in making what was no doubt a very difficult decision.

However, a major difference today is that unlike in 1970, the federal government does not have unlimited powers to restore order, and the Canadian military has not been deployed to city streets, something that shocked all Canadians, especially residents of Quebec over 51 years ago. As we all know, the War Measures Act was later repealed and, in 1988, was replaced by the current Emergencies Act by the government of Brian Mulroney at the time.

I wish to justify my support for this motion by addressing three areas: the applicability of the act, my personal understanding of freedom and my views as an Ottawa resident.

First, I accept that the threshold for the invocation of the act has been met. If what we are dealing with is not a public order emergency, I don’t know what is.

The blockades at international bridges caused tremendous and perhaps long-lasting damage not only to our economy in pure numbers but also to Canada’s reputation as a safe, engaged trading partner and investment destination.

Jobs are at stake. What the blockades in Windsor, Ontario, Coutts, Alberta, Emerson, Manitoba, and South Surrey, British Columbia had in common, on the surface, was an opposition to vaccine mandates ostensibly for truckers — that very small percentage that believes vaccine mandates impinge on their freedom.

The same goes for Ottawa. What the blockades and the occupation of Ottawa demonstrate is that the sentiments expressed suggest a national problem, not one confined to a specific region or city.

The blockades and occupation of Ottawa, however, are not just about vaccine mandates, if that was ever really the point.

Groups with deeper grievances, ranging from dissatisfaction with governments generally — particularly at the federal level — an unwillingness to accept the results of the last federal election, a general frustration with how two years of pandemic and health control measures have impacted their lives and, quite frankly, a wish to raise a little hell.

Mis- and even disinformation, particularly on social media, has added fuel to the fire and some of it has been spread by malign actors. This is to say nothing of crowdfunding, much of it foreign, a phenomenon we have not before seen in Canada at this level.

Further, some protesters were prepared to engage in violence. This was particularly clear in Coutts, where RCMP uncovered a disturbing plot to kill officers along with a cache of weapons.

As I have said, protest is normal in this country and it is an important part of a healthy democracy. What is not normal is the blocking of critical infrastructure and holding a city and its residents hostage for several weeks.

Based on their analysis, the Ottawa Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police concluded they could not bring the occupation to a safe and effective end with their own resources and under their municipal and provincial mandates.

The immediate situation in Ottawa was largely resolved, according to our police forces, due to the invocation of the act because it allows for greater police cooperation across the country without swearing-in procedures and the time-consuming establishment of other protocols.

For me, the sobering thought is that such blockades, occupations and demonstrations could recur at any time. Just because the streets of downtown Ottawa are now largely clear of demonstrators and trucks does not mean the danger is over.

The use of the Emergencies Act, while I support it in this instance, is a Band-Aid, not a cure. We must remember that, colleagues.

This legislation was designed with full deference to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a last resort to deal with different types of emergencies.

I will not delve into the detail that others have already offered except to say that there are serious checks and balances. They are meant to ensure that the government is held accountable by Parliament and the public and can neither maintain the declaration of emergency indefinitely nor for its own purposes.

I would further point out that it would be quite challenging for a minority government to veer into authoritarianism despite what we have heard from so many critics.

Colleagues, like all of you, I heard and read what demonstrators in Ottawa had to say. They said they wanted freedom or they wanted it back or they were fighting for bodily autonomy. Their list of complaints was long and many of their slogans were American imports — for example, “Don’t tread on me” and “Live free or die.” Others would not exactly fall under parliamentary language as we know it.

Even some of the flags were imported from other places and times. It is upsetting to have to say that Confederate and Nazi flags have no place in Canada. In my view, neither do upside‑down Canadian flags at our cenotaph, which is what I saw outside my office window.

Demonstrators made their points. They complained very loudly and were heard. It was impossible not to hear them. These people, despite their assertions that they have unified the country as never before, are not the majority they claim to be.

Over 80% of Canadians have complied with mandates, have been vaccinated and have learned about QR codes knowing they were doing this for their health and safety and for the common good of all citizens.

Surely, in this great country we have learned throughout our history that our social contract means we sometimes must make sacrifices to safeguard our society and protect each other. This is why we have laws and public health measures and why we pay taxes. The social contract we all sign on to by virtue of citizenship and residence in Canada is not rendered void because some people do not like it.

That is also why we have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an important document that more Canadians should read. I must point out here that it is the Charter by which we abide in Canada, not the United States Constitution.

Colleagues, Canada has come through this latest pandemic with one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and one of the lowest COVID-related death rates. Why? Because Canadians and our federal, provincial and municipal governments all worked together. Yes, there were some coordination issues, especially in the first dark days, but they were largely overcome. And those who did not and still do not wish to be vaccinated made their choice.

In Canada, our mission since 1867 has been peace, order and good government. For the most part, we have fulfilled the goals of that ongoing project. It is part of what Canada is known for in the international community.

In my previous career, it was part of my job in the service of both Conservative and Liberal governments to promote and defend human rights and freedom in various parts of the world. I have many stories; I’ll give you one short one.

While a junior diplomat stationed in Central America, I recall arriving late one evening at the airport in El Salvador while that country was engaged in civil war. I took a taxi down the deserted highway to the capital, San Salvador, and was soon pulled over by a military platoon asking for my credentials.

Surprise was expressed that I did not have a security detail — I am a Canadian after all — but then the commanding officer said that everyone liked Canadians because they stood for freedom. “By the way,” he told me, “my sister lives in Toronto.”

I was warned to be careful because there were reports of a unit of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, or FMLN in Spanish, a few kilometres up the road. Sure enough, members of the guerilla group intercepted me and my now nervous taxi driver some time later. Credentials were again shown, this time to the self-described freedom fighters. I was asked to pose for a photo with the group, which the leader said he would send to his sister who was living in freedom in Vancouver. He then said we should be very careful because there was an army column nearby. The driver and I just looked at each other.

Colleagues, people all over the world have come to Canada to find and live in freedom, my own parents and some members of the Senate included. This will continue despite the concerted efforts of many to besmirch, denigrate, fundraise or even derive partisan political gain from the word “freedom.”

Colleagues, I’m a resident of Ottawa and for the past few weeks I’ve walked to work every day. It was the easiest way for me to get to my office in the Chambers building. From the moment I would open my front door at home to arriving at my office some 40 minutes later, I heard the truck horns, usually in one continuous blast. I walked past shuttered businesses, past the closed Rideau Centre, the sixth-largest mall in Canada, I believe, and through the fumes emanating from illegally parked, idling trucks downtown and in the Parliamentary Precinct.

I spoke with protesters. I spoke with their children. It is not the only example of this, but I personally saw from a distance demonstrators carry out a racist and deeply offensive parody of an Indigenous ceremony.

Other senators and I have received countless emails and phone calls from Canadians, and from some Americans too, asking us to vote against this motion and also asking us, in many instances, to bring down the government.

I have received many communications as well from residents of this city who are simply trying to live their lives in peace. They were scared and they were, and are, angry. I am too on my own and on their behalf.

Residents have been harassed for wearing masks. They have been subjected to racist and misogynistic comments — and no amount of “but that’s just a few bad apples” makes this less unacceptable.

Seniors and people with disabilities who rely on meal deliveries, such as Meals on Wheels, have been impacted by blocked streets. People have worried, with good reason, about their residences being attacked. There was public urination and defecation even on the sacred ground of the National War Memorial.

There was a sense, again with very good reason, that the rules did not apply to the occupiers — and worse, they believed it as well. There was a loss of public trust, no small matter in municipal authorities, including the Ottawa Police Service, beleaguered as they were. There was a decrease in mental and physical health as a result of this occupation, and a deep concern of the impact of all of this on children and even on pets.

All of this leads me to have great concern for members of our dedicated Senate staff, as other senators have mentioned — those in our offices and in the Senate Administration — who live downtown and in Centretown. Check in with them, colleagues. See if they’re okay.

Colleagues, no matter how many inquiries are undertaken under whatever levels of government, this event has marked the lives of Ottawans forever. In fact, it is one that impacts all Canadians, even those who live nowhere near here.

The use of the federal Emergencies Act and the long-term implications of doing so on our national psyche make that clear. We know there are people across the country who see Ottawans as entitled and who did not want the convoy to leave the city, people who were happy to show their explicit support for the demonstrators and their goals. They will need to reflect on comments made and actions taken.

It is not just the supporters of the demonstrations in Ottawa and the blockades across the country who need to reflect. Every single Canadian must. How we respond in this moment will have effects not just now but into the future. This is not just a debate on the use of the Emergencies Act in this specific situation. It is a debate on what we want this great country of ours to stand for. Thank you.

Hon. Kim Pate: Honourable senators, I also rise as someone who has the privilege and responsibility of living and working in the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe.

Colleagues, all indication is that the urgent situation of the past weeks could have been prevented. The occupation of the streets of Ottawa did not begin as an emergency. It became one because of inaction and intransigence by all levels of government and was shaped, in particular, by systemic racism, misogyny and bias in state attitudes, including among law enforcement, as well as apparent feelings of overdue reckoning and unification of people who have long been left behind, many of whom have experienced victimization, criminalization and institutionalization by those same state authorities.

While many of us were stopped and questioned on the road, trucks were permitted to roll in and lay siege to the nation’s capital. This, even though public authorities had advance intelligence of the involvement of violent extremists. It is clear White supremacist, populist, racist, xenophobic discriminatory objectives filled the hearts and minds of key organizers and those who bankrolled and emboldened them to promote hatred.

What is also clear is that many ordinary people, whose needs and interests have been intentionally ignored by successive governments, were engaged by calls for freedom and an end to autocratic, unfair and unaccountable decision making.

I am beyond heartbroken that communities and families are being pitted against each other, that people I know and love are among those here, across the country and in other nations who, after decades of disenfranchisement and abandonment by health, economic and social systems, think they have found common cause.

These emergency measures may end the blockades and occupations, but they will not redress the inequalities, disenfranchisement and divisions that these actions reinforced and exacerbated. If we actually hope to end and prevent such insurrection, we must, crucially, work to ensure that the most dispossessed and marginalized are no longer left behind. We must prioritize equality, dignity, fairness and justice for all.

Years before Parliament Hill became my workplace, on the Centre Block protest grounds and beyond, I organized and participated in countless demonstrations and protests aimed to disrupt and raise concerns about inequities and grievances from anti-poverty to anti-war, pro-choice, anti-racism, anti-violence against women, support for missing and murdered Indigenous women, anti-heterosexist, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, environmental, women, Indigenous, Black Lives Matter actions. The list goes on.

The purpose of protest is to disrupt and get change. The purpose is to create action. Unlike this occupation, prior to the wielding of the legal sledgehammer of the Emergencies Act, the full force of the law was often swiftly employed to subdue, suppress and squash lawful and peaceful protest. It certainly was not the norm to have law enforcement and conservative interests joining, posing for group photos, or urging us on and partying with us.

As the convoy arrived in Ottawa, police were already present on the roads. Driving to my office on January 28 and beyond, I was stopped, questioned and urged not to proceed, only to then watch trucks being waved through as they drove onto Parliament Hill.

We now know that Canada’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre warned the federal government days before the siege that violent extremist groups were deeply involved and that the scale of the protests would be a “trigger point and opportunity for potential lone actor attackers to conduct a terrorism attack.” Why did authorities not take this threat seriously?

Homeless people trying to survive in encampments, Indigenous peoples protecting their lands and waters, Black Lives Matter protesters, women, environmentalists, striking workers and countless others have too often faced state use of force and even brutality and violence when exercising their rights to peaceful assembly. I cannot imagine any of these groups being permitted by law enforcement to drive multiple vehicles, much less 18-wheelers, onto Parliament Hill.

By contrast, those occupying Ottawa were granted incredible leeway to move flammable liquids and heavy vehicles through heavily populated areas and to harass, bully and threaten people, including front-line workers, health and retail workers, service providers, residents and homeless folks.

Police claim that they have received few official complaints — this after advising Ottawa residents seeking assistance that they could not intervene, that people should shelter at home, remove their masks when challenged by occupiers, or consider temporarily leaving their homes in the downtown area. Counter-protesters who confronted trucks reported being approached by police to negotiate safe passage of the convoy, including being asked, “If you don’t move, how does this end?”

All of this reflects the racism, misogyny and bias long identified in policing, corrections, the military and, in some respects, the government, whereby some are privileged with protection and others are at best abandoned and at worst allowed to be brutalized. In a context where every state authority is being investigated for failure to address class, race and gender bias, the reluctance of individuals to report such actions is not only understandable but should be expected.

Honourable senators, how comfortable would you be pushing authorities, some of whom you see posing for selfies and otherwise endorsing the individuals you fear? How do you know which officers are the ones who will act professionally and fairly versus those who may not? The sense that police have stood by, condoned or even supported the occupation is, unfortunately, reinforced by the presence of former police, military and national security personnel among the organizers, funders and occupation participants.

Meanwhile, people living on the streets, people living below the poverty line, women, Indigenous peoples, African Canadians and other racialized people, those living with disabilities and members of the 2SLGBTQ community have disproportionately borne the consequences of the occupation, while simultaneously seeing that little has been done to address the root issues of the inequalities they endure.

At the same time, those experiencing financial, social and health insecurity have also been disproportionately drawn into the anti-government protests. Many joined the occupation because of distrust of the government and concerns about vaccines or COVID health measure mandates.

Decades of evisceration of our health care systems meant that governments turned to mandates to flatten the curve of demand for urgent health care. Small government focus on shrinking social, economic and health supports has resulted in massive inequalities. Canadians below the poverty line are twice as likely as more well-off Canadians to die of this virus. Pandemic policies have left the most marginalized behind.

The focus on health mandates has overshadowed the collective dimensions of health and reinforced individualistic responsibility for public health, rather than emphasizing collective obligations and the importance of government and business ensuring safe living and workplaces, paid sick days or equitable availability of health supplies and emergency supports.

Too many in Canada experience economic deprivation, uncertain if they will have the means to care for, feed and shelter themselves and their families. Across Canada, the number of visitors to one in every four food banks doubled last year during COVID.

Current policies leave those in the most precarious positions to fend for themselves, which is contributing to many being drawn to the populist messages.

These feelings of deprivation and abandonment were further intensified by the government refusal to dialogue, much less acknowledge, and attempt to understand the feelings and real concerns expressed by many ordinary people from across the country who are struggling to get by.

The government knew that protesters were coming to Ottawa, yet no attempt was made to intercept or address the issues being raised. While we certainly saw instances of extremism, racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny here on the Hill, should we really be calling all who oppose vaccine mandates racist and misogynists instead of trying to meaningfully understand and address underlying fears, anxiety and frustration?

CBC recently reported the story of a man from Saskatchewan, a farmer and father of two, who took part in a blockade of his provincial legislature. A volunteer firefighter, his mental health suffered after being a first responder to the bus crash that claimed the lives of members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team. When a Workers’ Compensation Board denied him income supports, he reported that he really quit trusting other people to make decisions on his behalf. During the pandemic, he opted not to vaccinate himself or his two children.

He decided to join the protests, looking for “a sense of belonging” after witnessing the hurt experienced by his 12‑year‑old when their family was not allowed to go into a ski chalet to eat because they were unvaccinated. The man said he felt like they had been treated as if they were “dirty.” He acknowledged that some involved in the protests were “extremists,” but many were “ordinary, hard-working” people. He has heard reports of occupiers in Ottawa harassing a homeless shelter and displaying Confederate flags and swastikas but doesn’t trust the media and believes such stories were fabricated.

As highlighted by the work of the African-Canadian senators group and the Parliamentary Black Caucus and our Indigenous colleagues, despite frequent references to truckers and vaccine mandates, the organizers of the occupation are not tied to the trucking industry. They are linked to organizations espousing extremism, anti-democratic values, violence and White supremacy. They hope to benefit from the attention, recruit others to their cause and try to normalize hateful symbols and messages.

The emergency measures we are debating will not end people’s sense of disenfranchisement, distrust and anger. Indeed, they run the risk of further eroding trust in government by stigmatizing and further isolating those on the margins.

Responding meaningfully to this occupation means taking action against the hate speech that it has emboldened and which can prevent women, racialized people and many others from exercising their rights and participating in their communities. In the short term, the government could, for instance, reintroduce legislation from last Parliament to re-enact former section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. This measure would allow advocates to file complaints about hate propaganda targeting specific communities that is likely to do significant harm.

Also, as human rights advocates like Monia Mazigh remind us:

Anti-terrorism legislation is not only unconstitutional it is useless in protecting public safety. It is time to repeal these laws and hold a public debate about the meaning of freedom. Instead of laws that curtail our civil liberties, we should reflect on the importance of respecting our human rights to ensure both our safety and our security.

Finally, on an urgent basis, we must also ensure that social, health and economic policies address the inequities that rig systems and abandon people in vital need of support to situations of crisis and vulnerability.

COVID-19 reminds us that none of us will be okay until all of us are okay. Safeguarding our health and well-being in this pandemic and beyond is necessarily a collective and inclusive, not an individual, endeavour. We cannot hope to protect ourselves from the effects of COVID if those around us lack the financial means and supports to similarly ensure their safety and well-being. Likewise, we cannot hope to counter disenfranchisement and division without plans for income, health and social equality that cease to leave people behind.

The protesting man from Saskatchewan, despite his distrust of the media, shared his story with CBC saying that, “. . . he believes more communication and understanding are needed” and he wants “us all to be friends after this (pandemic) is said and done.”

This is a goal I believe most Canadians share. We absolutely need to come together to address inequality and work to build an inclusive future. We need to build an inclusive Canada. Thank you, colleagues. Meegwetch, merci.

Hon. Paula Simons: Honourable senators, last week, RCMP arrested 13 members of a blockade who had helped to paralyze the Coutts border crossing, the main point of entry from the United States to my province of Alberta. Those blockades were devastating for ordinary citizens held captive for days, unable to get to the hospital or to the grocery store; for local farming and ranching communities who depend on that border crossing every single day; for the real professional truck drivers, many of them Sikh Canadians, effectively held hostage at the border by those who claim to speak for them. Those blockades cost the Alberta economy an estimated $864 million.

The situation was so dire that by February 5, Alberta sent an urgent request for assistance to the federal government, saying police had exhausted all options and needed emergency federal assistance to “mitigate risks of potential conflict.”

And those risks were real enough. RCMP also found three trailers filled with weapons: handguns; a machete; 13 long guns — not just your typical farm rifles but semi-automatic military-style rifles — multiple sets of body armour; a large cache of ammunition along with high-capacity magazines; and, amongst it all, the insignia of Diagolon, a so-called “accelerationist” group that aims to accelerate racial conflict to lead to the eventual creation of a White ethnostate.

Of the 13 people arrested last week, 4 are charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Politicians and pundits expressed shock and surprise. I was not surprised. This is not my first rodeo. I cut my teeth as a journalist covering White supremacists in the late 1980s back when Terry Long and Aryan Nations were burning crosses in Provost and when the Ku Klux Klan tried to blow up the Jewish Community Centre in Calgary.

Much more recently, I covered the death of Daniel Woodall, a brave officer with the Edmonton police hate crime unit, murdered by an anti-Semitic hate-monger linked to the Freemen on the Land movement.

Last week’s arrests shouldn’t have shocked anyone, at least not anyone who had been paying attention. Far-right hate groups have been on the rise in Canada since 2016, first turbo charged by imported American right-wing rhetoric, incited further by the delusional paranoia of the QAnon conspiracy. In Canada, these groups fed on xenophobia in general and Islamophobia in particular.

Now, once upon a time, small groups of angry malcontents might have blown off steam with a few buddies in the bar. Today, the angry and the alienated are radicalized online by social media platforms — Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, 4chan,Telegram — where people can connect and form virtual communities, where they can marinate in a lethal cocktail of disinformation, bravado and paranoia; where they can cross‑pollinate their various obsessions and hobby horses and weave together their conspiracy narratives of choice.

Media platforms as diverse as FOX News, InfoWars, Breitbart, Rebel News and RT allow people to inhabit a parallel world — not just a world of alternate facts but of alternate realities. In this shadow world, lone wolves find their packs.

For the last five or six years, brave journalists, including Mack Lamoureux, Justin Ling, Caroline Orr and Evan Balgord have been reporting on extremist groups such as the Proud Boys, Sons of Odin, the Three Percenters, the Freemen on the Land, the Yellow Vesters and Diagolon.

Watchdogs like the Canadian Anti-Hate Network and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue have tracked their activities. But not everyone has paid attention. The evidence of the last three weeks suggests Canadian policing and intelligence services may also have underestimated the risks of domestic terrorism and the likelihood and probability of foreign interference.

Well before COVID-19 arrived in Canada, far-right actors were actively preying on people’s frustrations and fears. In 2019, the United We Roll Yellow Vester convoy, organized by many of the same people who organized this one, took over the streets of Ottawa, mixing pro-pipeline slogans with an ugly blend of anti‑Semitism, anti-Muslim rhetoric and propaganda attacks on Indigenous Canadians. It was not a good-faith demonstration in support of Alberta’s vital oil and gas sector. It was a travelling hate circus. And United We Roll was just a dress rehearsal for what we’ve seen in Ottawa and across the country these last few weeks.

This event was not infiltrated or appropriated by racists. It was organized by them. Those bouncy castles, barbecues and hot tubs — those were stunts designed to distract, delude and troll us. This was not a street party nor a festival; it was not Canada Day — people waving Confederate flags, symbols of slavery and racist oppression, all the while mouthing slogans about freedom; people screaming about free speech while they attacked journalists in the street over and over again; anti-Semites with the grotesque audacity to desecrate our Canadian flag with swastikas and to then pin yellow stars to their chests and equate the inconvenience of wearing a mask with the horrors of the Holocaust; homophobes and transphobes waving nasty signs, vandalizing in the most grotesque ways homes that dared to display pride flags; thugs and drunks stealing food from the homeless, attacking and harassing women and people of colour on the street.

It was a veritable carnival of hate, endorsed and condoned and even cheered on by some Canadian politicians, craven cowards, people who knew better but chose to exploit this volatile and dangerous moment for their strategic advantage and to exploit these damaged and deluded people for petty personal political gain and, almost as disappointing, the naïveté and willful blindness of those who minimize this ugly campaign of intimidation as though it were some sort of authentic expression of working-class Canadian angst.

Some of the people at Coutts and Windsor and Ottawa were ordinary, ordinarily decent Canadians, many of them, it must be said, seduced and hoodwinked by those who manipulated their genuine frustrations and fears. And how many Canadians have a family member or friend broken by these last few years, someone who has fallen down the rabbit hole or sucked into a cult-like vortex of misinformation and paranoid fantasy? Perhaps you, too, know that sick feeling of watching someone you care about suddenly start posting conspiracy theories online, wild, sometimes delusional accusations that have become completely unmoored from reality — accusations, for example, that the COVID vaccine causes AIDS or that the Prime Minister has been replaced with a look-alike. And this isn’t a far-right phenomenon. It’s happening right across the socio-economic and political spectrum.

This is a scary, lonely time, and I understand it’s tempting to believe in a big, bad conspiracy, to believe that some mysterious cabal controls the world rather than to accept the random horror of COVID, a virus that continues to kill hundreds of Canadians every month and mutates into new varieties we cannot predict.

In the beginning, though, we pulled together. We helped our neighbours, felt a sense of community, solidarity and purpose, banged pots for our health workers instead of assaulting and threatening them. We praised our teachers instead of invading their schools in angry mobs.

But I think Omicron shattered something. We believed that if we got vaccinated, we would get our lives back. But the coronavirus did not get that memo. It evolved. And when our vaccines no longer seemed to work very well, the case to get everyone vaccinated seemed a lot less persuasive.

No wonder, then, that thousands of Canadians were vulnerable to the lure of extremist groups and flim-flam artists who preyed on their fears and mental exhaustion and offered them the deceptively simple dream that if they just got rid of the Prime Minister all of their problems would evaporate. Because let it be said that not everybody behind this slow-motion coup was motivated by ideology. Some of them were also seen to be motivated by good, old-fashioned greed. This has also been an organized grift, a giant con, a way to shake down people who were already desperate, to give them some sense of divine mission, all the while picking their pockets.

When the time comes, we must also investigate the role of foreign interference in all of this, the role of foreign funders, foreign actors and foreign governments who were all too happy to pour gasoline on this fire, all too gleeful to see Canadian democracy destabilized. We must especially investigate the way international agitators and con artists in countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Vietnam and Bangladesh created a phalanx of fake Facebook pages, the better to create the illusion of widespread support for this toxic crusade.

That said, do we need the Emergencies Act to deal with this disgrace? Is the risk of invoking it one worth taking?

The convoy organizers were perfectly plain. They boasted of their plans on social media, live-streamed their dollar-store revolution in real time, shared out their seditious manifesto with pride.

I still cannot believe our capital was caught so flat-footed, especially after the Yellow Vest protest of 2019 and the attack on Parliament in 2014.

Where was the threat assessment, the strategic response? How and why were the people of Ottawa abandoned for so long? We should count ourselves blessed that most of these would-be rebels were, in the end, so disorganized and confused. The fact that their plot didn’t work says more about their incompetence than about our capacity to defend ourselves and our values. The next time we may not be so lucky.

It’s easy to write off alt-right hate groups as bullies who talk a big game but don’t carry through as cosplaying revolutionaries. Therefore, don’t look at Ottawa. Look at Coutts. Look how close we came to a massacre. We have to stop thinking it couldn’t happen here, because it almost did. Yes, the RCMP in Coutts made their arrests before the Emergencies Act came into place. However, the blockade itself didn’t fizzle out until the spectre of the act was in the air.

While the Emergencies Act has worked in the short term, I’m deeply troubled by the precedent. I worry about a future government that might weaponize these powers against environmental protesters, Indigenous activists or strikers. More philosophically, I worry about an erosion not just of our civil liberties but of our social contract. Because when Ottawa’s block party from hell is finally over and cleaned up, how many Canadians will have lost faith in their police, government, democracy and — worst of all — each other?

Lies are already spreading. Fox News, for one example, repeatedly reported that a female protester had been trampled to death by a horse. Even after Fox News retracted its outrageous story, it kept metastasizing online. So many people have embraced the false narrative that we have enacted martial law, robbed them of their civil liberties, frozen the bank accounts of people who bought T-shirts and upended democracy. I now fear confirmation of the act may poison our politics even further. If we deem its confirmation is now a necessary evil, let’s think hard about all the failures of public policy and political leadership that have led us to this place.

My friends, I want to live again in a country where we treat doctors, nurses, teachers, journalists and scientists like the champions they are. I want to live again in a country where we don’t make folk heroes out of people who throw rocks at ambulances or go to schoolyards in the Okanagan to scream racist abuse at schoolchildren. I want to live again in a country where we work together to fight this deadly pandemic, which is not over and that continues to kill Canadians — especially vulnerable Canadians — at an alarming rate — and to kill so many that we now seem to be numb to the rising death toll even as a new, more contagious and perhaps — I hate to say it — more dangerous variant, BA.2, starts to infect our nation.

My friends, are we really going to allow ourselves to be manipulated by hate-mongers, confidence tricksters, trolls and foreign actors into tearing our Canada apart? Or, instead, are we as senators going to help lead Canada back from the brink? We must do better and we must be better. We must be the Canada we want to see in the world. Thank you and hiy hiy.

Hon. Yvonne Boyer: Honourable senators, I rise today during this historic debate. As I begin my speech, I would like to acknowledge that I’m speaking to you from the traditional and unceded territories of the Anishinaabe, Mississauga and Algonquin nations. The people of these nations are the original stewards of the land, and it is important to show our respect for their stewardship by acknowledging them every time and every day.

We are gathered here today to carry out what is at the core of our responsibility as senators: to act as a chamber of sober second thought and to bring the voices of those who are not heard or represented in government decision making to the forefront.

I support the government’s decision to take these unprecedented steps and implement the Emergencies Act. We are in an unprecedented situation, and action must be swift and ongoing to restore order and end the violence and unlawful blockades across Canada.

While I support this decision, I also support the great hesitation that was shown before enacting these powers. In that light, I caution this government and future governments about potential use of this act in the years to come. Invoking these powers was held to be a last resort by the government, and it must always be that way. Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are critical rights. They must always be upheld and defended in this country. However, what we have seen over the last weeks is not this, and these actions must come to a complete stop.

Honourable senators, I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to acknowledge and shine a light on what is an undisputed fact in this country and across the world: the fact that Indigenous, Black, other people of colour and 2SLGBTQ+ peoples are disproportionately targeted by law. They are also significantly more likely to have negative interactions with law enforcement, likely involving violence and — in the most tragic circumstances — death. These are cold, hard truths.

It is critical that any time we have discussions around law enforcement matters we must take the time to bring these perspectives into the conversation. There must be strong oversight to ensure a clear and concise anti-bias approach is considered and implemented during the use of these powers.

As we move forward, we must have a profound discussion on human rights and peaceful protests, the theft and destruction of lands, the poisoning of waters and the environment and how these peaceful protests by Indigenous peoples have been managed and contrasted in light of the three weeks of violence, destruction and damage from the recent occupations and blockades.

The blatant difference is horrifying and shocking.

Within the Emergencies Act exists the provision for the parliamentary review committee, which will examine the use of these powers after the fact. I not only believe it is critical that this committee examine the impact this invocation has had on Indigenous, Black, other people of colour and 2SLGBTQ+ peoples, but it must also examine the oversight that was provided during these times so that these acts do not occur in the first place. I know that this parliamentary review committee will have a monumental task ahead of it, but it is critical that these perspectives are not left to the side and ignored, as they so often have been. The composition of this committee must be diverse and include those who are able to bring perspectives of Indigenous peoples, persons of colour and 2SLGBTQ+ people to the deliberations.

After the Emergencies Act was enacted in 1988, it took over three decades for it to be invoked. I truly hope, as I’m sure all senators do, that it will be the last time it is ever used. Let us use this experience we are witnessing to come together to build a fairer and more just Canada for everyone. Thank you, marsee, meegwetch.

Hon. Patrick Brazeau: Honourable senators, at the age of 15 I got my first summer job. It was for the National Capital Commission. I was hired to pick up garbage with a pick and a garbage bag, and I took care of the flower beds on Parliament Hill and the surrounding areas. Every day I got to come to work that summer, I felt privileged to work on Parliament Hill because I was in awe of the structure and what went on within those walls.

It was also the summer of 1990 when we witnessed another crisis, the Oka Crisis, where we had non-Indigenous men — investors — wanting to build a golf course on a traditional Mohawk burial site. This crisis of 1990 forced the Conservative government of the day to send in the military after a request from the Quebec provincial government. I have seen and participated in many peaceful protests and have witnessed many different protests in front of Parliament Hill over the years from people across the political spectrum. However, what we have witnessed in the past weeks is anything but a protest. What seemed like a protest quickly became an occupation, which quickly became an illegal occupation.

Paralyzing the city of Ottawa and its residents is something we have not seen before — not in Canada. We saw individuals posing as Indigenous peoples, including several organizers. I do not know for a fact if these people are Indigenous or not, but what I do know is that many Indigenous peoples and organizations across the country have denounced the cultural appropriation being exercised by some of these individuals.

We saw how reporters were harassed and in some cases not able to do their jobs. We saw people chanting “fake news” toward reporters who are part and parcel of our democracy. We saw reporters being spat on. We have witnessed more interest in U.S. media, making absolute false statements about what is really happening in Canada. The amount of misinformation is pervasive because it affects us all.

Other high-profile individuals throughout the world have associated Canada’s Prime Minister to Hitler. How infantile can grown men be? This is where we are, and it’s very scary. Are we moving forward or taking a few steps back? Time will tell.

We have also witnessed the partisanship between different levels of government and the leaders of every political party throughout the country. We have witnessed jurisdictional wrangling between the federal, provincial and municipal governments and law enforcement. As an Indigenous person, I have — and I’m certain most Canadians have — witnessed the complete and differential treatment of lawful, peaceful Indigenous protests versus what we have seen this past month in Ottawa and other parts of the country. What message does this send? How do you think 1.5 million Indigenous people feel in this country after watching this unfold — after watching RCMP officers shake hands with and hug the non-Indigenous protesters?

I have never seen that happen to any Indigenous person in Canada. And it’s shameful.

There were individuals with racist behaviours, people spitting on reporters, anarchists, truckers and people who simply participated with the thought that they were taking part in history. I never thought I would see White nationalists and supremacists anywhere in the streets of Canada. I thought these were American problems.

The United States has their share of problems and seems to want to permeate our country with them. I don’t know about you, colleagues, but I have never seen so much U.S. traffic, correspondence, emails and phone messages. In fact, I’ve seen more U.S.-related correspondence in one week than I have in the last 13 years here, and I find that concerning.

Finally, we have witnessed politicians support this occupation. “Support the truckers” is what was said. We all know that they were more than truckers, more than vaccine mandates and more than people unhappy with the current government that was at play. It was an attempt to overthrow the government. It should not matter what government is in power. When there is an attempt to overthrow the government, we should join together and put democracy in action. No Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic Party, Green or independent MP should ever wish for this to occur in their country, regardless of who is in power, because Canadians choose our leaders by way of elections. We just had one four months ago. Canadians spoke.

Unfortunately, the Emergencies Act has been invoked for the first time. The House of Commons and the Senate of Canada are asked to vote on whether the invocation of the act was justified. It is difficult to know with certainty if this was necessary at this point. The fact is, no one knows exactly what happened because we do not have the facts before us. Was there foreign interference, financial or otherwise? What were the purposes of the occupation? Was there involvement by political parties? Was the Ottawa police perhaps compromised? After all, the Ottawa police chief had to step down as a consequence of the illegal occupation in Ottawa. We are not aware of the potential jurisdictional issues that may have hampered quicker action.

With all these unanswered questions, one thing is certain, however. Under the act, there will be answers to many questions Canadians have with respect to why this occupation occurred and why it lasted so long. Until then, perhaps we should all stop trying to be experts by delving into the hypotheticals of why and how this occurred.

I have faith in my country, and I have faith that we will all get the answers. Ultimately, as is always the case, it will be Canadians who will learn the facts and decide for themselves if this invocation of the act was necessary for our collective security or if it was done as a partisan abuse of power.

Until we have all the facts, I invite you to take stock of what happened and to respect another aspect of our democracy, which is due process. Rather than creating further divides, let us take a step back and let justice do its work. Under the act, if passed, an investigation or inquiry must be undertaken to seek all the facts and will have to report back to Canadians in about a year.

Colleagues, that’s why I will be supporting the act, but I wish we were not at this point. The House adopted the act by a vote of 185 in favour versus 151 against. We are not here to rubber‑stamp anything, but I will be supporting the act because by doing so, it will bring the checks and balances needed to try to get to the bottom of what occurred. Speaking for myself, justice, due process and patience will shed light on facts in a non-partisan way.

Partisanship is partisanship, but continuing to play partisan games at this time is not helpful for anyone. Let’s come together as Canadians to support and defend our democracy. Even with all its failures and inaction by the federal government, and, in particular, its treatment of Indigenous peoples throughout history, Canada is still the best country in the world.

Respect is clearly lacking in today’s politics. Perhaps social media is partly to blame, but politics are becoming very divisive and full of smears. As parliamentarians, it is our job right now to put that partisanship aside and fight against any type of hate. Canadians have every right to see us working cooperatively to get facts, not hearsay. This is not time to take cheap shots or settle political scores. This is the time for this chamber to rise above petty political tricks and consider only the needs of Canadians, without regard to political stripe.

Honourable senators, I want to remind Canadians of who we are, and of our collective values and convictions. We are a peaceful, strong, generous people. We work through our problems together, in good faith and with good will.

Life can be short, colleagues. We have one life to live. Perhaps our time would be more usefully spent trying to get along rather than in creating divide.

Those who have fuelled, supported, participated in or used this as a political tool will not be on the right side of history. Choices in life come with consequences, and freedom always comes with a price.

It is alarming but not surprising how some people support illegal occupations but quickly condemn legal, peaceful and rightful protests that have occurred in Canada. So I would like to take the time to thank all of those involved who made Ottawa boring again and who have given the citizens of Ottawa their city back. Ottawa is also my home and the home of the Algonquin nation.

In the end, I offer this to you, colleagues: The most powerful freedom fighter is democracy. Everyone has a job to do, so let’s get to work and do our part. All my relations, meegwetch.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Senator Arnot, we have three minutes left if you want to start your speech, or you can continue tomorrow morning.

Hon. David Arnot: Honourable senators, I speak to you today from Saskatoon in the heart of Treaty 6 territory and the traditional homeland of the Métis. I speak in favour of the motion. Today, I’ll speak about the rule of law, Canada’s strong democratic institutions and the role of education in maintaining and protecting our democracy.

For more than two years, Canadians have faced a public health crisis that is unprecedented in living memory. Lives have been lost, and families, jobs and futures have been altered, often with great personal, emotional and financial cost. The cost of COVID-19 to individuals and to this country is staggering. It will require analysis and inquiry.

The majority of Canadians have done their part. They have followed public health orders and understood the responsibility to keep others safe. It is important to bring some balance to this debate. I’d like to say that, as I understand it, approximately 90% of Canadian truck drivers have followed the public health orders and have understood their responsibility to keep others safe. They stood with the majority of Canadians.

Indeed, truck transport is a major component of the Canadian economy. There are approximately 225,000 truck drivers in Canada who generate $40 billion in revenue. They provide tremendous service to the people of Canada. Trucking works best when the flow of goods is predictable and consistent, and due to COVID-19, that has not been the way over the last two years. The industry has been stretched by supply chain inconsistencies, illness and burnout.

I say this to make sure that truck drivers and the trucking industry in general are recognized for the critical role they play in our country’s economy.

In the last three weeks, however, Canada has faced another extraordinary threat — in this case, a most serious challenge to the rule of law. The rule of law binds us all. It supports our rights, our freedoms and, critically, the rule of law applies to everyone, equally enforced and independently adjudicated. No person is above the law. Canadians have the right to protest, that is true —