Senator Yussuff: Until we know for certain, we’ve been asked to consider if we support the government in regard to the invocation of the act. We don’t have another question before us right now. Until the House leader tells us something different, I guess we’re still voting on the motion.

Senator Cotter: This is a difficult question for me to ask, Senator Tannas, and I generally don’t do this. I did appreciate the heartfelt nature of your remarks and I’m in many respects entirely sympathetic to them. My question, I guess, is that if we were all to agree with you, we would all vote no to this motion. The problem with voting no, it seems to me, is it is impossible to distinguish whether we are sending a message that the emergency should have never been declared or it was legitimate to declare but should be cancelled out now.

I’m sympathetic to that tension, so I want to ask you this question: The legislation contemplates a power in us, with twenty senators to sign it, to initiate a process to bring this to an end. So I guess I’m inviting the question of whether — to meet the description and goal that you have in mind — we ought to endorse the Emergencies Act and then move for its revocation. By that, we would state the legitimacy of the resolution but the need for it to now be cancelled. I guess I’m interested in knowing whether that’s a better course than our consideration of the very points that you make. Thank you.