Senator LaBoucane-Benson: I’m from Alberta. Whether people are vaccinated, unvaccinated — I have both in my family — is not what this is about. At the very beginning, the convoy was about vaccine mandates. Someone in your caucus said we should have gotten rid of the vaccine mandates and everybody would have gone home. My question is this: As a government, do you do that? Do you give in to illegal activity? Do you give them the outcome they want to end this instead of using the Emergencies Act? Is that what should have happened?

Hon. Terry M. Mercer: Senator Batters, I’m shocked that the Prime Minister has gone to these lengths to upstage me and my speech here this afternoon. I thought when he kicked me out of the Liberal caucus a number of years ago that that was the last time he would do that.

Honourable senators, we are all tired. We are all sick and tired of COVID-19, stay-at-home orders and health protocols, but the end is near. We should continue our measured approach and cautiously lift restrictions so we emerge from this pandemic in a way one can only hope will prevent such widespread measures in the future.

We must continue to use the tools that have worked. Do we have to like them? No. But it is clear that they have gone far in preventing a massive breakdown in our health care system. Many people have been sick, some are still living with long COVID, and many have died, but how many more would have fallen ill or died had restrictions not been in place?

Honourable senators, this is at the heart of why we’re here today. People are tired. We are all tired. Does that give the right to shut down our capital city and our border crossings to the detriment of hundreds of millions of dollars in trade? I don’t think so.

The Emergencies Act, the implementation of which we are debating here today, came into being under former prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1988 to replace the War Measures Act. The new Emergencies Act, in my opinion — and some of my Conservative colleagues may be shocked to hear this — was a good bill. Brian Mulroney actually had one good bill in his quiver. It was a respectable compromise to ensure the protection of rights but also the protection of citizens in times of emergency.

Honourable senators, I believe the convoy started as a statement of protest — that people are indeed tired of restrictions and want them lifted. But that statement was silenced early in the siege of the capital. It gave way to a louder voice — a voice of lawlessness, rage, racism and anti-Semitism. It attracted much attention, goaded on by fake news and false social media information. The fringe had arrived in Ottawa, and they were not leaving come hell or high water. It got worse as time went on. What emerged was a mob of loud, horn-honking partiers with their hot tubs, bouncy castles and pig roasts. It turned into a glorified street party for radicals and conspiracy theorists. Some peaceful voices were indeed lost in the fray.

The citizens of the city of Ottawa were under siege, and they had had enough. I heard and saw many comments generally like, “What’s the big deal? It’s downtown, and we’re not bothering folks.” There are tens of thousands of citizens who live within 5 or 10 minutes of Parliament Hill. It’s a unique thing in a capital city in most parts of the world. They were being harassed by constant noise and were verbally and, in some cases, physically enduring abuse. Some of their homes were almost burned out.

That leads us to the question asked many times during this debate: Why wasn’t action taken earlier? Quite frankly, this was a failure by every level of government. From the very beginning of the pandemic, COVID-19 has been politicized and has created a deep mistrust of science — and politicians for that matter — a mistrust we may have misjudged. Combine the endless closures with the stay-at-home orders we all faced, and it led to tempers flaring wildly and straight to the occupation of the city of Ottawa and the takeover of our border crossings.

Honourable senators, I believe in protests and protesting. I’ve participated in many in my life, all peaceful and hopefully all effective. That is not what this was. That was not what happened in Ottawa, and it hardly lives up to Canadian values. In my eyes, there were some outside forces at work here. I look forward to looking into this as well. The Emergencies Act also gives us the power to do that.

FINTRAC is following the money, and it is about time that we did that with such fundraising platforms as GoFundMe. Where is the money coming from? Up until now, there was no way to monitor outside money, and I am pleased that we are able to now. For those who have stated here that the little guys are getting harassed and having their bank accounts seized, I do not fully agree with that. There are safeguards in place to remedy a serious situation if it occurs. If it does occur incorrectly, we can look at that and fix it.

In fact, the RCMP says they are not targeting the little guy, just mainly the organizers and those who continued to support them in Ottawa.

So, honourable senators, why keep the measures in place if it’s over? Well, are we certain it’s over? Perhaps, according to Senator Batters’ statement made before my speech, it actually is over.

Are we certain it’s over? I do not believe so. I’m sure many of you saw in the papers in the last day or so about the number of encampments of the former occupiers of Ottawa that are surrounding the greater Ottawa area. The people haven’t really all gone home.

Why not keep these measures in place to ensure we are safe? It is balanced. It is not overreaching. It is subject to review, which we’re doing right now. Democracy and the rule of law are being respected by what we are doing here. The Emergencies Act has safeguards in place: parliamentary oversight, accountability and respecting rights under the Charter.

If some premiers do not want the help the Emergencies Act provides, that is okay too. One in particular did, and it worked. It should continue to work until the misguided — in some cases criminal — element is completely gone.

Most importantly of all, this will be reviewed by representatives of all groups in the Senate and the other place. That is a good thing, with proper checks and balances to prevent overreach.

I might also add, with all due respect to my lawyer colleagues, that I certainly hope there will be representatives of other professions besides lawyers on the committee.

Honourable senators, we in this country have choices, but choices have consequences. If you’re going to choose to occupy a city and disrupt our borders and be warned countless times to leave and then not do it, our laws to protect law and order must come into play.

Finally, I would like to commend the outstanding work and dedication of all police forces who were involved and who were there from all corners of the country to help in this illegal blockade in Ottawa and at our borders. I would also like to commend their families who must watch them go to work every day, putting themselves in harm’s way to help protect us.

This is about the COVID vaccine issue for many people. It’s interesting that this morning I picked up my local paper in Nova Scotia, and on page 2 of the paper there’s always a history section. Today’s history lesson for us is interesting. It says that in 1954, the first mass inoculation against polio with the Jonas Salk vaccine took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Many of our younger people in this chamber have never seen polio, and the reason is the vaccine. Polio has almost been eradicated in the world because of the vaccine. I’m frustrated that people are not concentrating on that. We’re all frustrated, but Canadians will get through the pandemic stronger, wiser and safer than ever. Thank you, honourable senators.