Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, Prime Minister Trudeau finally revoked the Emergencies Act yesterday but he should never have employed it in the first place. Once again, this Prime Minister and his government have failed Canadians. They exploited the division between vaccinated and unvaccinated Canadians for political gain. But Canadians have rejected that division, that stigmatization and those shameful political wedges.

When will this government follow our international allies and most of our Canadian provinces and remove discriminatory vaccine mandates and restrictions?

Senator Gold: Yesterday afternoon, the Governor General of Canada signed an order putting an end to the public order emergency that had been declared on February 14. By signing this order, the Governor General was acting in accordance with the Emergencies Act, which states that the public order emergency ends as soon as the government makes the decision and the order is signed by the Governor General.

[English]

Senator Wells: Thank you, Senator Gold, for that. It would appear to me — I don’t know the exact law on this — that if accounts are still frozen, it would be outside the purview of the Emergencies Act. Therefore, we would expect some immediate action.

Senator Gold, what is the intent of the government with regard to the information that was collected under the authority of the now-revoked act, with regard to Canadians’ banking information?

Hon. David M. Wells (Acting Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Thank you, Your Honour. My question is for Senator Gold. Senator, hundreds maybe thousands of Canadians’ bank accounts were frozen during the invocation of the Emergencies Act on February 14, 2022.

With yesterday’s revocation of the Emergencies Act, have all these accounts been unfrozen?

Senator Gold: I think it’s important for senators to understand — they certainly don’t want to revisit the hours I spent the other day — that at such time as the act, the proclamation, was invoked, the measures were in place and enforced. At such time as the government decided it was no longer necessary, those measures ceased. However, actions taken during the period that were authorized by the regulations promulgated under the Emergencies Act remain subject to those terms.

The government, as prudent as it was in deciding to invoke the Emergencies Act and as responsible as it was in determining — as it had been stating and I had been repeating — based upon the advice of police, law enforcement, the intelligence community and other advisers, that it was no longer required, this chamber should be assured that the government can proceed responsibly and prudently with regard to matters you questioned.

Senator Dupuis: Senator Gold, we’ve gotten a number of emails in recent days and weeks. I am still hearing today in the Senate that you’re being asked about the Emergencies Act being revoked. For the benefit of anyone who is watching these proceedings, and perhaps also for senators, could you clarify what the government revoked yesterday?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Thank you, Your Honour. My question today, again, is for the Government Representative in the Senate. Leader, the Emergencies Act is revoked, but the Trudeau government mandates that sparked the protests remain in place. Provinces all across the country are dropping their mandates and giving hope to Canadian families and businesses.

Just yesterday in this chamber, as we were debating the Prime Minister’s non-existent emergency, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia were putting forward their plans to ease restrictions. Yet the Trudeau government still hasn’t said that it will shelve their proposed vaccine mandate for interprovincial trucking.

Leader, I asked you recently to confirm that this foolish idea is off the table, and you didn’t really answer my question. Now that in itself isn’t a big surprise. Today, I’m going to give you another chance. Also, you gave me an opportunity yesterday to answer a question with either a “yes” or “no.” So today I’m going to afford you the same opportunity: a yes-or-no answer. Will the Trudeau government call off its interprovincial trucking mandate?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question, senator. Notwithstanding the revocation of the state of emergency, the Emergencies Act still provides that the parliamentary review committee shall be established. Indeed, it requires that the committee report back to both houses of Parliament, within seven sitting days. It is the intention of the government, as it has been for some days now, to move with as much dispatch as possible for that committee to be established.

Honourable senators may already know, if you are following Twitter, that there have been proposals already made public by both the Conservative Party of Canada and by the government for how this committee would be established — or rather, proposals for what the committee would look like in terms of the number of senators and the number of members of the house. My understanding is that discussions continue to be underway with the House leader in the other place and his counterparts in all other opposition parties to seek a consensus to move forward as quickly as possible. I am intimately involved on an hourly basis to be kept aware of that.

With regard to the first part of your question, I think it’s important to understand that the committee will clearly have access and the ability to seek all the information it deems relevant, subject, of course, to whatever legal requirements or legal limitations there may be on the information that can be shared even to that committee, as I explained at some length and on some occasions the other day.