Senator Gold: Thank you for your question. That’s an important question. I know it is a preoccupation of many, regardless of their particular cause or ideological perspective.

This act was passed in 1988. It was passed after the Charter was proclaimed and was passed, as many have mentioned — indeed, as I did in my speech — in response to the invocation of the War Measures Act and some of the abuses that took place. These abuses took place not only in my province, but indeed in Vancouver and elsewhere, when journalists and others were rounded up and their civil liberties completely suspended.

I think Canadians should be proud of the work that the Mulroney government did in 1988 to put into place a measure that is much more focused, much more temporary, much more limited, that does not purport to oust the application of the Charter and that provides the kind of democratic accountability that I’ve tried to outline.

Can the act be amended and improved? Of course. Honourable senators who were here when we debated Bill C-59, the National Defence Act — which I had the privilege of sponsoring — know that there were measures put in place in the 1970s and 1980s that need to be updated. There are many reasons to update measures, if for no other reason than technological and societal changes, and changes in the world that needed to be addressed. We did that with Bill C-59. We may very well need to do that with the Emergencies Act.

Again, at the risk of sounding legalistic, today we’re here to decide whether to confirm the government’s decision to invoke the act. There will be time, whether it is in the inquiry or anything that we in the Senate may choose to initiate, to take a closer look at the text of the Emergencies Act to see how it might be improved upon.