44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 20, 2022 07:00AM
- Feb/20/22 7:15:12 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is unbelievable that the member opposite is defending the foreign-funded groups illegally occupying our city, illegally blocking our critical economic infrastructure and openly floating the rule of law. These foreign-funded groups have made a mockery of our law and have held our men and women in uniform in contempt.
Does the member not agree with the interim Ottawa police chief, who said that this Emergencies Act provided the police with the resources they needed to handle the situation? Senator—
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- Feb/20/22 7:30:55 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is exactly what I am talking about. We have two powerful men bantering back and forth. We have almost had the government overthrown. We have had to call in police.
Now is not the time for division. People across the country expect us to work together to get back on track. They are struggling. That is what the NDP is here to do.
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- Feb/20/22 8:16:08 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there is a lot to unpack in my colleague's question. I could address each point separately, but I will focus only on the last point, about co-operation among police forces.
Before Christmas, the Bloc Québécois spoke out about illegal weapons crossing the border. We talked about the need for Canadian, American and indigenous police forces to work together to solve the problem.
Are we now meant to believe that it would take the Emergencies Act for all these police forces to work together to solve a problem? Come on. The reasons given to justify the use of the Emergencies Act do not hold up, since we already have all the tools we need in the existing legislation.
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- Feb/20/22 8:28:39 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us hear from local law enforcement. In this case, it is Ottawa's chief of police, Steve Bell. He said, “Without the authorities provided to us through these pieces of legislation, we wouldn't be able to be doing the work we are today.”
Does the Conservative Party disagree with the Ottawa chief of police?
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- Feb/20/22 8:29:11 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to realize that these protests and these demonstrations have not been limited to Ottawa. There have been similar protests and demonstrations all across the country, and every other municipal police force seems to have been able to deal with it in a satisfactory manner. The other police forces seem to know how to do crowd control, how to divert traffic and that sort of thing. I think it would be beneficial for the Ottawa police department to learn these best practices from other police departments and learn to do it how everyone else has.
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- Feb/20/22 8:31:03 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is lovely to finally have a chance to speak, having been here since 7 a.m., and I will be here until midnight.
I am trying to make up my mind on how I am going to vote. With a sincere effort to remain respectful, I must tell the member that it does not help when the crisis in Ottawa is minimized to a problem of bouncy castles. It was an occupation. It caused millions and millions of dollars of damage to this city and its residents. Honking horns all night actually qualifies, under the Geneva Convention, as torture. One is not allowed to do that to prisoners.
The people of Ottawa have been imprisoned by occupiers. They may not have known what they were doing. This is quite likely for many of them, especially the ones who seemed so surprised they were ultimately going to get arrested. Non-violent civil disobedience has a long tradition, which I will not go through, that includes knowing one is going to be arrested because one is breaking the law and has done this on principle.
Could we not at least agree what occurred here in Ottawa was, from the moment those large 18-wheelers started occupying whole streets so the people of Ottawa could not go about their day-to-day lives, a crisis? It was badly handled and I will not disagree with that. If we look at the place where we were last week, how would we have solved that without the powers in the Emergencies Act, particularly to compel tow truck drivers?
One of his colleagues on those benches directed me to section 129 of the Criminal Code, which I know is obstruction of a police officer, but it does not fit the circumstance.
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- Feb/20/22 8:32:44 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I certainly hope the hon. member does vote against the invocation of this act. We can agree this whole situation could have been handled better, as we have seen with other police departments in other cities across the country.
There certainly is a role to be played for law enforcement. We cannot have law and order break down. I did say in my speech I condemn the jumping up and down on the National War Memorial and the intimidation of local residents.
Again, these are matters for local law enforcement and do not justify the national emergency spelled out in the Emergencies Act.
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- Feb/20/22 10:49:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, as we know, the Ottawa police asked for 1,800 extra police officers, but the federal government sent only a handful.
Can the member explain that?
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- Feb/20/22 1:08:24 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.
His account of what happened to his family is unfortunately similar to what I have been told, and what my aunt and family friends have told me, about October 1970, and I totally understand the horror he must have experienced back then.
What is happening now is not about the army, it is about protesters. I kept reading and rereading, and I wondered what powers the police did not have before the Emergencies Act was invoked.
Were they unable to issue fines? Were they unable to co-operate? Were they unable to enforce a court order? What powers did they not have that were suddenly given to them?
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- Feb/20/22 1:09:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to begin by saying that one thing that was remarkable about the operations here in Ottawa over the last couple of days is that we had police authorities from all across Canada coming to work together. The chief of police described it as a true team Canada approach and a true team Canada effort. We saw police from Calgary, Peel Region and Durham, as well as the Sûreté du Québec.
It is that team Canada approach that I feel is going to get us through this turmoil. It is important that we not lose sight of that, as well as of the fact that these measures are subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects Canadians from coast to coast to coast and will keep us on the good side of this new legislation.
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- Feb/20/22 1:25:40 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the question. As I said earlier, this is a critical, and arguably the most important, debate that we have had here in the House. I am honoured to be a part of it.
I know that we all have Canadians' best interests at heart. I have heard from countless residents over the past three weeks about the impact that this occupation and the threats across the country have had. I believe it is important for all of us to listen, to hear what these residents have to say and to support them. By invoking the Emergencies Act, we have been able to empower our police forces to do the jobs they need to do to ensure safety and security across the country.
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- Feb/20/22 2:07:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I liked the tone of the speech given by the member, my former colleague on the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, with whom I have had the opportunity to share many thoughts.
Nevertheless, I will ask him the same question I asked my other colleague earlier. Where and how do these emergency measures give police rights and powers that they did not already have?
Before these emergency measures were invoked, were police forces from different municipalities not allowed to work together?
Could police officers not issue fines?
Could police officers not enforce court orders?
How do these emergency measures give the police new powers?
What are the new powers?
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- Feb/20/22 2:26:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am sharing time with the member for Victoria.
It is with a heavy heart that I speak to the House today. In what is becoming a phrase used far too often over the last two years, we find ourselves in yet another unprecedented situation. How did we get to the point when the Emergencies Act needed to be used? The fact that we are here debating this is indicative of the fact that all levels of governments have failed to uphold even the most basic laws.
As we know, law enforcement has been paralyzed for weeks. Until Friday, the police response in Ottawa has been to avoid towing or even ticketing vehicles out of fear of confrontation. Indigenous, Black and other people of colour from coast to coast to coast looked at this situation and rightfully asked how heavy-handed those same police forces would have been if they were to crack down on them for attempting a fraction of what they were witnessing. Videos of police forces violently engaging with tent cities in parks for the homeless are circulating, reminding us of how hard police forces criminalize poverty.
It is clear that we are now long past due seriously examining the state and culture of policing in this country, but it extends beyond that. We saw the City of Ottawa change its electronic signs on the highway to properly guide the way for occupiers to reach their destination. The Prime Minister adopted a do-nothing approach and was quick to hide behind jurisdiction when it suited him, yet it is impossible to deny that the Liberals used vaccination as a wedge issue in the election, throwing aside real leadership for partisan gain in the hopes of recapturing a majority.
Meanwhile, Conservative MPs shook hands, vocally supported and even did interviews in front of Canadian flags defaced with swastikas. In support of the occupiers, the Conservative member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke even referenced global “jet-setting resetters”, a clear dog whistle for conspiracy theorists who believe the World Economic Forum is forcing some sort of great reset on society.
The interim leader of the Conservatives, while she blames the Liberals for creating division, in her emails, noting her party's support for the occupation, said, “I understand the mood may shift soon...we need to turn this into the [Prime Minister's] problem.” The only declared candidate for leader of the Conservatives, the member for Carleton, has been cheering the occupiers on from the start. However, here they are in this place, refusing to acknowledge the role they have played throughout the pandemic nurturing the ecosystem of anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, blaming everyone else for creating division.
In locations across the country, most significantly in the downtown core of Ottawa, we have witnessed over the past three weeks an illegal occupation. Lives have been utterly upended. This illegal occupation shut down business operations in Ottawa's downtown core for weeks. People are too intimidated to leave their homes.
Threats and harassment have been made, some of this abuse has been hurled at health care workers and school children on school property. Retail workers have been assaulted, and a building had an attempted arson where the doors were taped shut. Another building had occupiers attempting to handcuff the doors closed.
Measurements of sound have found unsafe decibel levels for prolonged exposure for residents that could cause permanent hearing loss. Measurements of pollution have shown that trucks idling in the core for this long have had a significant impact on air quality, not to mention the impact on climate change. Large amounts of firearms have been confiscated in Coutts, yet the main organizers of this illegal occupation, with a long history of posting white supremacy rants about Anglo-Saxon replacement theory, like to call it a peaceful protest.
Let us be clear. Hurling racist insults, harassing outreach workers to take food meant for the homeless, entering businesses while refusing to follow public health guidelines and intimidating workers, brandishing symbols of hate like Confederate flags and swastikas, yelling at school children, assaulting journalists, deputizing themselves with unlawful authority to detain people, using international money or cryptocurrencies to help fund this illegal occupation, issuing a pseudo-legal document to overthrow a democratically elected government and to install a governing coalition with the Governor General and Senate, is not peaceful protest.
These are occupiers who, while they complained about their freedoms being infringed on, sat in makeshift hot tubs on Wellington Street. Meanwhile their children, who they brought to the illegal occupation, played in a bouncy castle, with constant loud horns blaring, which could cause damage to one's hearing. The irony is somehow entirely lost on them.
Our Conservative friends, whether it concerns the existence of systemic discrimination, a woman's right to choose, gay marriage, trans rights or a number of other issues that pertain to the freedoms and rights of people in this country, are more than willing to ignore charter rights when it does not align with the views of their base.
The Liberals are not much better. Remember 2015 and the last election under the first past the post? That was scrapped when the identified proportional representation system did not align with what the Prime Minister wanted.
What about the freedom of assembly? Liberals are no better than the Conservatives, tripping over themselves to trample on the rights of workers with back-to-work legislation.
The Conservatives claim they are there for the workers. Although there have been more than 4,800 complaints regarding unpaid wages filed by long-haul truckers to Employment and Social Development Canada in the last three years alone, the Conservatives have been completely silent on this injustice. Not only that, why are they not advocating for the workers at the Rideau mall, which has over 1,000 workers and has been closed for weeks as a result of this illegal occupation. Retail workers in downtown Ottawa have a $0 paycheque at this point.
We are in an unprecedented situation where the Conservatives have essentially cheered on this illegal occupation, while the Liberals sat on their hands, allowing things to escalate unchecked. It never should have come to this. We need a series of thorough examinations on how every level of government let things get to this state.
Make no mistake, the NDP is taking the use of the Emergencies Act very seriously. We will not give a blank cheque to the Liberals. The government will have to stay within the established powers and ensure those extraordinary powers are not abused or we will withdraw our support.
Thus far, police forces have shown great restraint and care as they retake our streets. It is heartening to witness. I sincerely hope this approach becomes the norm and not the exception, especially for peaceful demonstrations where there are indigenous or racialized people.
We need this occupation to end. We are all tired of the impact of the pandemic. We want to return to some form of normalcy. We want to see a plan going forward so Canadians know what they can expect. The NDP called for this when our leader called for an emergency debate back on February 7. All Canadians deserve to be safe and free of harassment. The residents of downtown Ottawa need us to act to ensure their safety and freedoms are protected.
Let us stop the partisanship. Let us get to work, and let us bring back safety for all Canadians. What is equally important after all of this, is for us to look deeply into the situation so we can prevent this from ever happening again. I am thankful for the opportunity to have my voice heard today.
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- Feb/20/22 4:19:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, what we have to remember in this instance is that for over three weeks, we were not able to put an end to the occupation. It continued on. Different tactics were used, with the application of existing law being present, but our law enforcement agencies were not able to end this occupation.
Through the provision of powers, some of which I articulated, and their application, law enforcement was able to end the occupation. We heard that from our local interim police chief in Ottawa. These powers that were given to him through the Emergencies Act gave him sufficient tools to end the illegal occupation of downtown Ottawa.
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- Feb/20/22 4:22:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Ottawa Centre for some good points. I disagree with some of them, but he is debating in a strong parliamentary fashion.
I disagree with some of the things he said. As mentioned, under the Emergencies Act, the key test is whether or not existing laws in Canada can solve the problems we face. In the case of Ottawa, and I have been in and out of the city since the truckers' protest began, the actions we saw in the last couple of days were a reflection not so much of the fact that we needed the Emergencies Act, but that the Ottawa police had finally started to act. At the very beginning, we could have avoided some of the challenges that we have today if the Ottawa police had taken a different approach from the onset.
The member opposite is the former attorney general of Ontario. There have been many cases in Ontario where a large police presence was required, such as the G20 summit a number of years ago. It had a huge police presence and was able to contain a large crowd.
I still have not received enough evidence from the government to determine that no other existing laws could have effectively dealt with the current situation.
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- Feb/20/22 4:24:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member opposite knows that politicians cannot dictate to law enforcement how to apply the law. We have to rely on law enforcement to do the work.
We have heard from our interim police chief that the Emergencies Act allowed him to do the important work he has done, with the help of many other police services, including the RCMP and the OPP, to put an end to this illegal occupation here in Ottawa.
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- Feb/20/22 5:39:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have heard often from members opposite that they could not do some of the things they needed without invoking the Emergencies Act. However, section 129 of the Criminal Code allows the Minister of Justice to impose on and get people, tow trucks, to work with police. The Interprovincial Policing Act in Ontario enables a police chief to deputize any person simply to do this.
Can the hon. member tell me if she has heard any arguments from the government during this important debate that justify or demonstrate that the government pursued any of these legal tools before invoking this act?
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- Feb/20/22 5:52:05 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I do not entirely disagree with the comments from my colleague in the Bloc when she said a lot of people were caught up in this whose intentions were different from those who were on the path of the lawless behaviour that we have seen. However, I would say that the vast majority of those who were here in the week leading up to the police action that we saw in the last three days had by that point dug in their heels and were saying that they would not leave.
More importantly, we have heard a lot about how the powers were there and the provinces had the powers to do this or that. Yes, the provinces had the power to bring in other police forces, but they did not. The provinces did not do anything.
Is this member saying that it just happens to be a coincidence?
I would like to ask my question without being heckled.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Feb/20/22 5:54:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am very sorry, but I think the member for Kingston and the Islands is running out of arguments. He has been here arguing for a long time. He is tired and is now taking things too far.
All of the police forces came together, teamed up, joined forces and worked together. They are the ones who managed to push the protesters back, with support and coordination from their command centre. It was not special legislation or an order that came in to save the day.
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- Feb/20/22 6:23:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we knew that there were extremists within the convoy when we first heard it was coming. We knew there were far-right groups involved. It seems they were allowed to settle in anyway. Once that happened, I think the Prime Minister could have showed more initiative and made sure that the police forces were coordinating their efforts, but nothing was done.
What does my colleague think about that?
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