Tag Archives: Emergencies Act

Roundup: Occupation over, emergency orders confirmed

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The occupation of Ottawa’s downtown core by far-right extremists, grifters, and conspiracy theorists is at an end. The police action kept up all day Saturday, and by Sunday, they were into mop-up operations. In total, there were 191 arrests, some 400 charges, and 79 vehicles towed, but it will still be some time before barricades start coming down in downtown Ottawa, because they want to ensure that the same group don’t move right back in once the barricades come down. And indeed, while the occupation may be ended, the emergency measures will likely stick around a little longer in order to prevent a resurgence or similar attempts in other locations, particularly given that many of the participants are lying in wait just outside of the city in makeshift encampments on private property. Trudeau said the emergency orders will likely be lifted in a few days, but they’re awaiting advice from law enforcement.

In the meantime, the debate on the emergency measures carried on through the weekend and into Monday, and while I have a column coming out later today on just how bad it was, there is special mention to Conservative MP Mark Strahl for fabricating a constituent named “Briane” who apparently had her accounts frozen for donating to the occupation before it was illegal. Andrew Scheer went ballistic about how this kind of retroactive application of the orders was unconscionable, erm, except that it didn’t happen because Briane doesn’t exist, and if she does, then it’s someone catfishing Strahl, who is too gullible to check into a clearly bogus tale. To date, 76 accounts have been frozen, either from organisers of the occupations, or those who owned trucks on the streets. That’s it. But the Conservatives are trying to push a narrative that Trudeau is authoritarian and punishing dissent, even though none of this actually bears out in the facts or the political reality of someone in a hung parliament. They’re just so cartoonishly bad and transparent in their lies that it’s hard to actually believe they are that inept. And yet they’ll get away with it, because there are credulous media outlets taking it at face value, and even more that are both-sidesing, and trying to get confirmation no matter that the falsehood is obvious on the face of it.

The vote itself was not particularly close, given that the NDP had already signalled that they would support the motion, though that didn’t stop the Conservatives from trying to deride them for supposedly turning their backs on how Tommy Douglas voted against the War Measures Act, even though the Emergencies Act is not the same thing and does not suspend civil liberties. There was later some consternation that Trudeau indicated that this would essentially be a confidence vote, which frankly it should be. If you don’t think the government can handle emergency powers, that’s a pretty solid indication you don’t think they should be in power. After the vote, Candice Bergen was already read with procedural mischief to use the portion of the Act that can call for a motion to lift the orders with the support of 20 MPs, so that will go ahead once the sitting resumes in a week. The Senate still has to vote on the emergency order motion, probably later today, so the government is not in the clear just yet.

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QP: Final arguments before the emergency measures vote

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I was initially unsure that there would be a Question Period today, given the solid 18-hour “debates” that took place over the weekend, but lo, there it was on the calendar, and all of the leaders were in place for it, with Deputy Speaker Chris d’Entremeont in the big chair. Candice Bergen led off, script in front of her, and she cited experts that said that the government had all of the tools it needed to clear the occupation without the Emergencies Act, and demanded to know the criteria to end the orders. Trudeau read that the measures supplemented local police, and that they would lift the measures as soon was feasible. Bergen demanded to know what particular powers were needed, and Trudeau listed a number of issues that he said proved provinces and municipalities needed the measures. Bergen demanded an apology from Trudeau for calling the extremists who organised the occupation racists, misogynists and of holding “unacceptable views,” and Trudeau declined, saying people can disagree with the government and that their Charter rights are protected. Luc Berthold took over in French, and quoted Nathaniel Erskine-Smith’s reluctance on the measures and worried the prime minister would make it a confidence measure. Trudeau repeated his list of events to justify the orders. Berthold then raised the issue of Joël Lightbound before repeating the demand for an apology in French, and Trudeau repeated his talking points about Canadians speaking together. 

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and demanded the emergency orders be lifted now that the occupation was over, but Trudeau replied that they were still in a precarious situation as they needed to remain vigilant from efforts to re-establish blockades. Blanchet demanded to know one place in the country that still needed the measures, and Trudeau said that once the orders were lifted, they would look at how to better empower police to prevent future actions.

Jagmeet Singh appeared by video and lamented the impact of the occupations and blockades on workers, and noted the support for small businesses but wanted supports for workers. Trudeau praised their efforts over the past two years, and said they were moving forward with “measures to support them.” Singh repeated the question in French, and Trudeau repeated his response. 

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Roundup: Police action underway, and the occupation thins

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On day twenty-two of the Grifter Occupation, the police closed their net. With all of the access routes to downtown Ottawa cut off with over 100 checkpoints, no grievance tourists were getting in for the weekend. Then, starting at Nicholas street, the combined police forces started pushing west, gaining ground on the occupiers, arresting over 100 occupiers and towing over 21 vehicles (though I’m not quite sure what the total was by the end of the day). The advance had been halted near the Chateau Laurier for most of the evening, but police have said that this would be going twenty-four hours a day, and while they can rotate in shifts, the occupiers can’t really, so we’ll see how far they have advanced in the morning when this goes live. Once the action started happening, other trucks that had been parked along Wellington started to get the message that this is real, that their organizers have all been arrested or fled the scene, and that their best bet is to leave while they still can. And so, a number of them did do just that—being stopped by the police on the way out to be given a ticket, but then sent on their way. But the hard-core elements are still there, and there were parents who put their children in the way of police as human shields yesterday, which is a Problem.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1494795721094086659

To add to that, disinformation was going around, spread by certain less than scrupulous media figures in this country and picked up and amplified by Fox News personalities, claiming that a woman was trampled to death by a police horse (untrue, though occupiers did throw a bicycle at one horse to try to trip it up). Even more egregious were the declarations among right-wing media that this was somehow Canada’s Tiananmen Square, which is utterly boggling. Police haven’t even approached the level of violence if this were a homeless encampment in a park. They have been exceedingly careful with this whole affair (sparking yet more discussion of double standards and white supremacy), but it the fact that they are trying to make this comparison, and that Stockwell Day of all people was screaming this over Twitter, is just unbelievable, but considering that these people seem to think that Justin Trudeau is worse than Hitler (no, seriously), you see how completely unhinged their world view is.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1494851024376541187

And then there were the Conservatives, who were tweeting up a storm today to disapprove of what has taken place, expressing their “sadness” at the police action taking place, decrying the use of emergency powers, and blaming the prime minister for not meeting these extremists or capitulating to their demands. More to the point, they are trying to foist this narrative that Trudeau is being “divisive” (along with “stigmatized and traumatized Canadians”) because he *gasp!* clocked these extremists for who they were and called them out. You call out extremists—you don’t coddle them or offer them succour. But the Conservatives are so willing to go to bat for these kinds of people in the hopes that they will get something out of it in the end, which they never will. Once the Overton window has been shifted, the extremists still won’t vote for the Conservatives, and the terms of debate will be worse than when they started. They just refuse to see this happening all around them. What’s worse are the right-leaning white male columnists who are also going to bat for these people, and buying into the “Trudeau is being divisive” narrative, no matter how it’s nothing more than bullshit.

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Roundup: Arrests begun as overwrought debate underway

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Debate on the emergency orders began yesterday with all of the leaders staking out their positions. And I will note that there is a legitimate argument from the Conservatives that the Emergencies Act shouldn’t have been invoked—but then they take argument that Trudeau didn’t do enough beforehand to deal with the situation, never mind that the Ottawa Police are the police of jurisdiction, that Doug Ford did virtually nothing to help never mind that this was well within his jurisdictional purview, and of course, they argue that Trudeau caused this by being mean to the extremists who organised this whole thing, and that he hasn’t capitulated to their demands. And thus, a good point is lost in the fog of utterly dishonest partisan posturing. It should also be noted that civil liberties groups are going to court to oppose the Act’s imposition, but their otherwise valid points are divorced from the reality that this is not a peaceful or legal protest—it’s an event organized by anti-government extremists. This is not a good faith protest, it’s an illegal occupation, and that colours events.

With this in mind, the House of Commons will be sitting all weekend in order to debate the emergency order the fact that they will be sitting almost entirely around the clock over the long weekend means that they have speaking slots for virtually every single MP, which is egregious and overkill. If anything, it’s the height of parliamentary narcissism. Yes, this is an unprecedented action, but you do not need every single MP to stand up and read a prepared speech that parrots the talking points that their party leader has decided upon. That’s not debate, it’s not edifying, and it’s just an exercise in providing clips for MPs’ websites and social media channels. It defeats the purpose of what Parliament is about, and debases the point of debate (not to mention that everyone is already burned out from the past three weeks of insanity and this robs the employees, staffers and most especially the interpreters of the long weekend that they all needed). If they haven’t made up their minds on the imposition of the emergency orders by end of day tomorrow, then maybe public life isn’t for them.

Update: Sittings in both Chambers were cancelled due to the ongoing police action, so we’ll see when they resume. The point stands, however.

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QP: Debating the need for the Emergencies Act

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While the party leaders had all been in the Chamber for debate on the Emergencies Act, only one of them was still there by the time QP got underway. Luc Berthold led off in French, and he asserted that the PM had not paid out the case to invoke the Act and accused him of invoking it simply to save his personal political fortunes, to which Chrystia Freeland raised the economic damage of blockades like in Windsor. Berthold accused her of not updating her talking points, and then asserted there was no case to worry about foreign funding. Freeland stated that business leaders support the necessary action the government has taken because of the blockades and quoted Goldy Hyder’s support. Berthold repeated that there were no longer blockades at the border, and wondered why the prime minster’s mind changed over the weekend around invoking the Act. Freeland insisted that the government would always do what was needed to defend workers and the national interest, and raised their work in the New NAFTA negotiations to compare to the current situation. Kerry-Lynne Findlay took over in English and quoted the deputy director of FINTRAC saying there were no spike in suspicious actions, and Freeland retorted that she spoke to the head of FINTRAC and that they didn’t have the tools necessary to track the new world like crypto, which is why the new measures brought in gave them new authorities. Findlay then tried to catch out the prime minister in a contradiction about the geographically-limited nature of the invocation versus it being available nationally, and Freeland worried that the Conservatives were no longer a party that was concerned with the best interests of the country, then quoted her meeting with Perrin Beatty.

Alain Therrien rose for the Bloc, and listed things the government didn’t need to invoke the Emergencies Act for, and stated that it was simply a lack of leadership. Freeland business leaders in Quebec supported the government. Therrien claimed the federal government had been in “hiding” over the occupation outside—a blatant falsehood—and Freeland said they were taking responsibility for democracy and to protect the national interest.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he wanted a plan to get out of the pandemic with a commitment to better fund healthcare, for which Freeland stated that they were moving past the Canadians thanks to the 90 percent of Canadians who were vaccinated, and praised our outcomes in mortality rates over the course of the pandemic as compared to other countries. Singh switched to in French to call on the government to improve people’s lives, and Freeland assured him that they were doing so.

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Roundup: Complacency versus the hard work of democracy

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Things are fraught in Ottawa, tempers are short. A lot of stuff that has been barely under the surface is blowing up. David Reevely has some thoughts about where we find ourselves, and why, and he’s pretty dead-on about it.

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QP: A raucous disagreement on the Emergencies Act

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All leaders were present for what promised to be a fraught Question Period, where the prime minister would be responding to all questions. Candice Bergen led off, and wondered just what was the threat to Canadians that required the Emergencies Act, citing the test in the legislation. Justin Trudeau trotted out his line that using the Act is a serious issue, and that the test was met so they are giving police new tools. Bergen insisted that the situations were already de-escalating on their own, and that this was just about saving his political skin. Bergen repeated the allegation, insisted that Trudeau was name-calling, stigmatising and “traumatising” Canadians, and Trudeau said that by first insisting the opposition wanted to try and have it both ways. Bergen raised Blackface, Omar Khadr and a few other non sequiturs and then decried a “mental health” crisis before demanding all mandates be ended, and Trudeau accused the Conservatives of playing personal, partisan games.

Speaker Rota had enough of the noise, and turned the speaking list upside down and called on Mike Morrice, who asked about committing to mental health, and Trudeau praised their plans for a dedicated mental health transfer to the provinces and bragged the government’s Wellness Together app.

Rota returned to Bergen, who raised domestic assault stats to decry mandates, before she demanded capitulation to the occupiers’ demands, and Trudeau trotted out his worn lines about having Canadians’ backs.

For the Bloc, Yves-François Blanchet decried the application of the Emergencies Act in Quebec, and Trudeau reminded him that the Bloc were demanding action, while the application is limited and proportional, and a province who doesn’t need it doesn’t have to access it’s powers. Blanchet railed about the sensitivities of Quebeckers to the War Measures Act in its new form, and Trudeau listed federal tools that helped Quebec in the pandemic.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he decried how Black and Indigenous protesters were treated as compared to this occupation, and Trudeau admitted that they acknowledge systemic racism and they are committing to make changes. Singh switched to a French to demand the Emergencies Act not be applied in jurisdictions it is not wanted—a sop to Quebec—and Trudeau repeated that if the province doesn’t want the tools, they don’t need to use them.

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Roundup: Exit the police chief

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It never rains, but it pours, and yesterday the twist in the plot was that the police chief suddenly resigned his position. And while the immediate thought was that hey, someone is actually taking responsibility for their failure, it turns out that no, this was a “human resources issue,” likely related to bullying, harassment, and volatile behaviour around senior police leadership the longer this occupation drags on. And now we have an acting police chief at a time when the Ottawa Police Service is the police of jurisdiction during a crisis situation and under the aegis of the Emergencies Act, coordinating with the OPP and RCMP.

The other plot twist was that the mayor’s contact for his “backchannel negotiations” with the occupier leadership was Dean French, the lacrosse-loving chaos agent who used to be Doug Ford’s chief of staff. Mayor Watson said that French approached him about making contact, and Watson figured “anything to help,” rather than seeing the giant red flag and telling French to take a hike and never come back. So yeah, it’s like everyone is making the worst possible decisions, or we keep invoking Tucker’s Law.

Emergencies Act

Because we are still trying to sort out what all is happening around the invocation of the Act, here are some explainers from Naomi Claire Lazar and Lyle Skinner. As well, some observations about how it is being employed by the government, law professor Paul Daly has questions about some of the legal language.

The actual orders weren’t finally posted until 9 PM last week, which is when the rules actually went into effect, so good job on your timeliness there, guys. We now know that they are using the thread of political violence as their test for what meets the Act’s threshold, essentially calling it terrorism, which then raises the question of how this meets that particular threshold. The orders prohibit bringing food, fuel or children to the protest site, under threat of a $5000 fine or up to five years in prison—but we’ll see if police actually enforce that, as they have not been around the fuel convoy to the site.

As for the financial provisions brought into force, there are concerns that they could be a serious overreach, particularly if it affects an occupier’s ability to obtain financial services ever again. The occupiers, meanwhile, are trying to pivot to cryptocurrency, as though that will put them beyond the reach of government. (It won’t).

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QP: Platitudes about new tools for police

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With the Emergencies Act having been invoked, the prime minister was present in the Chamber today, as were most other leaders, which was good, because an exercise of emergency powers requires scrutiny. I’m not sure that’s what we got today. Candice Bergen led off, script in front of her, worrying about the Emergencies Act declaration, and wondered if the motion would not be bought before the Chamber until Friday, before the break week—which was a valid, if perhaps overly dramatic, concern. Justin Trudeau gave prepared remarks on the consultations with provinces and the time-limited nature of the declaration, but didn’t answer the question. Bergen noted that before she noted that the blockades in Coutts and Windsor cleared without this declaration, and concern trolled that the declaration would make the situation worse. Trudeau stated that this was a time for responsible leadership rather than the Conservatives encouraging these blockades. Bergen insisted that this was about an “ideological” desire to keep COVID measures in place, and pretended that this was against “science.” Trudeau repeated his points, this time naming individual MPs for encouraging these actions to continue. Gérard Deltell took over in French, and worried that half of the premiers were against the declaration and that this poured oiled on the fire, and Trudeau insisted this was about additional tools that the police of jurisdiction could use. Deltell repeated his concerns, and Trudeau insisted that these were “responsible steps” to keep the streets clear of illegal demonstrations. 

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and noted the situations resolved without the need for the Act, but worried that the declaration did not specify the geographic location it was to be imposed and wanted assurances it would not be applied in Quebec. Trudeau assured him the tools were only available if requested by local police. Blanchet gave a paranoid suggestion this was about imposing legislation on Quebec against their will, to which Trudeau repeated his points about local police.

Jagmeet Singh appeared by video for the NDP, and he decried the double standard of treatment of this occupation and worried about reports of police and military participation, and wanted assurances the measures would be used “for people” and not to support the occupation. Trudeau repeated about providing tools for police to give people their streets back. In French, Singh raised the weapons found in Coutts before repeating Blanchet’s demand not to apply it in Quebec, and Trudeau again insisted they would not impose anything where it was not needed by local police. 

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