Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: Honourable senators, I rise today to join in this historic debate. When I last spoke in this chamber, I lamented the role we are being relegated to. I called us the “chamber of the rubber stamp.” Today, however, we hold a very serious responsibility. A “nay” vote in this chamber would immediately revoke the emergency orders initiated under the Emergencies Act. We hold a unique veto power in this instance. The question before us right now is: Should we use it?

Like many, if not all of you, my office has been inundated with phone calls and my inbox has been flooded with emails urging me to vote against the continued use of these extraordinary powers. On the other hand, law enforcement, ministers of the Crown and various experts and pundits across the country urge the continued use of the emergency provisions, telling us that the emergency situation is ongoing and that we may lose control of the situation if the powers are revoked.

I understand that Canadians are angry. There are those who are angry at vaccine mandates that they feel have infringed on their basic freedoms and negatively impacted their livelihoods. There are, conversely, those who are angry at what they viewed as inaction on the part of their elected representatives at the local, provincial and federal level to quell this unrest in Ottawa and across the country until February 14 when the Emergencies Act was invoked.

When all this is over, we must find out how we got to such a sad situation for our country. I have lots of questions about how we got there. Why didn’t the City of Ottawa police prepare for a convoy we knew was driving across the country? We all knew that. Why didn’t the City of Ottawa invoke a court order? Why was the Prime Minister absent? Why didn’t we hear a word — not a peep — from the head of the RCMP? The convoy and COVID have divided Canadians, neighbour from neighbour, family member from family member. Even I had a very public falling out with my political family in the parliamentary caucuses over this.

It is no surprise to me that the debate thus far has been spirited and at times emotional. Many have lamented that we have found ourselves at this point. Canadians have always prided ourselves on our public order and good governance. We have peace, order and good government in our Constitution, and yet here we are invoking for the first time an act that gives broad and far‑reaching emergency powers to the government after a protest turned into what has been classified as an illegal occupation.

While I’m looking forward to the inquiry that will shine a light on the many failures at all levels of government to contain this issue earlier, I’m also cognizant of the fact that we cannot move forward in this debate without some serious examination with the fullest information that can be made available to parliamentarians of how these failures contributed to the current state of things.

Bylaw officers and local police did nothing to enforce the laws and bylaws that exist. No one is supposed to park on Wellington Street, at the heart of our democracy in Canada, the Senate of Canada, the Prime Minister’s Office, the House of Commons, the Supreme Court. You cannot erect structures in public places. You cannot idle your vehicle or create a noise disturbance. And yet, the convoy did all of these illegal acts for three long agonizing weeks. The premier was visibly absent during this period of unrest and all the while, the Prime Minister made antagonistic and further polarizing remarks about a group that was clearly already beyond frustrated and on edge, causing them to strengthen their resolve and further entrench themselves in Ottawa.

This is not leadership. This does not befit a Prime Minister whose mandate should be to bring Canadians together. Citizens launched a court action to stop the honking and took it upon themselves to block convoy members looking to further incapacitate the city by slowly circling schools and airports.

I received calls from concerned parents of Nunavut students attending university in Ottawa who were afraid for the safety of their children. Colleagues, Ottawa is the home of the second-largest population of Inuit in Canada, next to my own community of Iqaluit. I speak as a representative of people living, working, going to school, obtaining health services in this city who are from Nunavut and who have been greatly stressed, inconvenienced, scared by what has gone on. I heard from Inuit living in the city and helping organizations like Tungasuvvingat Inuit that they were no longer able to access services. I heard from homeless Inuit who were no longer able to reach safe spaces that enable them to survive in the harsh coldness of January and February.

I don’t agree with those that suggest that there was a diplomatic way forward in all of this. The main organizers were demanding all mandates be removed, even those within the purview of provincial governments, otherwise they would continue to occupy the downtown core.

Key leaders pointed to their — and I use this term lightly — memorandum of understanding that called on the Governor General and the Senate to overthrow the democratically elected government, then use their new-found power to end all mandates. The Governor General’s office was flooded with calls. In Ottawa, 911 was flooded with calls.

Clearly, these are unreasonable actions and demands, and when a group threatens to continue illegal actions until such unreasonable demands are met, that group is no longer exercising their right to expression, association and peaceful assembly that we cherish in this country.

The courts tell us that peaceful protest does not extend to any gatherings that seriously disrupt the peace as in R.v. Lecompte, nor does it extend to anything actions that physically block or impede lawful activities as defined in Guelph (City) v. Soltys.

Strictly speaking, the question before us today is whether the government was justified in its invocation of the Emergencies Act. Looking at the evidence, at least from what we know — and, honourable senators, as I expressed in questions I asked the government leader in the Senate yesterday, I think there is a lot that we don’t know and that the review committee should be trusted to look into regarding the aspect of intelligence information. But looking at the evidence that is available, I think it was justified. I think that there was such failure on the parts of the municipal, provincial and federal governments as well as with local law enforcement in their handling of this situation that it ballooned into such an untenable situation that the only way to coordinate a peaceable way out was through this act.

I believe, above all else, in the rule of law and its equal and consistent application. No Canadian should be above our laws, and everyone should be subject to natural consequences of breaking those laws. However, I cannot divorce from this question another question, and it’s a very important one to me. Are we still in an emergency? Do we still require the broad powers afforded by the emergency orders in order to contain what elements of the convoy and its major proponents remains?

We do have a national police force. We do have anti-terrorist capacity. We do have CSIS, which should be doing the job of staying on top of this and have the tools to do so under existing laws. Do we still require the broad powers afforded by the emergency orders? The answer to that is I don’t know. I know what I hear in the media, but I don’t know what the government and law enforcement know.

Senator Gold has vociferously told this chamber that this is not a matter of the government saying “trust me,” but at the same time he also called on us to have some faith that the government is acting in the best interest of Canadians. As a parliamentarian and a policy-maker asked to justify and support the continued use of these expanded powers, I don’t feel comfortable with that. I would feel more comfortable if I knew that voting “yes” at the end of this debate would result in a powerful oversight committee that had access to protected information — and this is an issue I’m very concerned about — that was informing decisions in real time. I would feel better knowing that there was a pan-partisan group of parliamentarians that were able to keep the government in check. These are the types of checks and balances we demand in a democracy.

I would like to pay tribute to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, with former solicitor general Perrin Beatty and his cabinet, who put together this very thoughtful Emergencies Act with a strong role for parliamentarians, representatives of the people, for adjudicating on the rightness of this order and its need to continue, as well as setting up rigorous — I hope — review and inquiry processes so we can learn from this very sad experience and make sure it never happens again.

Going forward, I cannot absolve the federal government of the blame they share in creating this situation — not just the convoy but the polarized society that we now find ourselves living in. Years of policy changes that threaten the livelihoods of provinces dependent on resource extraction have led to Western alienation, sparking the creation of such political movements as Wexit, and the Maverick Party, of which Tamara Lich, a figurehead in the convoy, was a founding member. And let us note that the identified leaders of this ragtag group are from Western Canada, a region of our country where the primary resource industry has been demonized by our government.

The politicizing of the pandemic, which happened shamefully in the last election at the hands of the Prime Minister and the demonizing of the vaccine-hesitant has further split Canadians. I am triple-vaccinated and grateful to be so, and have found that the public health measures in Nunavut have kept Nunavummiut safe. I thank the federal government for the support that has been given to the territories to help us deal with the threat of the pandemic, exacerbated as it was by our severe housing crisis and overcrowded housing. I have even refused the exemption afforded to parliamentarians and quarantined with my wife for two weeks before re-entering the territory in an effort to do my part to keep COVID out. It was only in the relaxing of some of these measures that we saw COVID spread widely through the territory.

So while I support public measures, I don’t think we should alienate those who don’t feel the same way. We should all be deeply disturbed that we can no longer have nuanced conversations in this country. Nowadays, you are either a sheep or member of the FluTruxKlan. You either support oppression or value freedom. These are not real options. You can believe in science but be hesitant about a vaccine that was developed quickly. You can support public measures but support the right of others to protest those same measures.

Quite frankly, the more I listened to this debate and the more I speak with colleagues I’m torn with how to cast my vote. As I said, I agree there was an emergency. I’m not totally convinced there still remains an emergency that requires these special powers, and I’m very concerned that we’ll not have in place the proper checks and balances to ensure there’s no misuse of these powers or to ensure that they are revoked the instant, as one minister put it during the briefing, “they become convenient, rather than necessary.”

So I will continue to listen with great interest to what respected colleagues in this chamber have to say as we continue with this important and historic debate. Frankly, right now, I’m not sure we continue to need this drastic measure at this moment. Thank you. Taima.

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