SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 35

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 20, 2022 07:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 35 - Feb/20/22
Mr. Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay (Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, BQ)
  • Feb/20/22 6:38:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. Of course, our opinions differ. Patrick Taillon, a respected law professor at Université Laval who is well known in Quebec, told Radio-Canada today that it is not enough to argue that a law is useful based on what the Ottawa police chief says. He pointed out that the government also has to show that the use of the act is necessary or essential, saying, “That is where the government is at a disadvantage, because it is difficult to prove that it is necessary or essential when the normal legal tools were not used during the first 14 days of the crisis.” Why go from doing nothing to the most radical solution? We are not convinced that the government tried everything before getting to this point. In short, why did the tortoise turn into a hare?
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Context: House Hansard - 35 - Feb/20/22
Mr. Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay (Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, BQ)
  • Feb/20/22 6:52:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member accurately described the unjustifiable and unwarranted nature of these blockades. He talked about the need to remove them. I think we can all agree on that. My question will be very simple. The first blockades, like the one at the Ambassador Bridge, occurred well before the Emergencies Act. Why was the same formula not simply reused in downtown Ottawa?
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Context: House Hansard - 35 - Feb/20/22
Mr. Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay (Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, BQ)
  • Feb/20/22 10:05:24 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, one of the tools in the arsenal of the Emergencies Act is the seizure of bank accounts. This was announced with great fanfare. To our understanding, it would be up to a bank or financial institution to play the enforcer, to self-regulate, to determine who took part in the occupation of Ottawa, and to investigate whether a protester has left Ottawa and can therefore have their account restored. Of course, banks frequently conduct credit checks to determine the creditworthiness of clients. However, playing the enforcer to determine who has taken part in the Ottawa siege seems complicated, and I wonder how that will work.
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Context: House Hansard - 35 - Feb/20/22
Mr. Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay (Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, BQ)
  • Feb/20/22 11:09:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. To sum up the situation, the crowdfunding platforms that are the main reason for the use of the Emergencies Act are already governed by the provinces. There are already laws in place that make it possible to arrest people for a crime or an offence. Thank goodness. Everyone is saying that the siege is illegal. The law already provides for sanctions in that regard, as well as for uttering threats, possession of unauthorized weapons and calls for insurrection. I have a question for my colleague. What is the point of invoking the Emergencies Act if there are already conventional legal tools and institutions that could have been used over the past two weeks but were not?
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