44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 25, 2022 11:00AM
- Apr/25/22 2:32:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Emergencies Act is one of the most powerful laws in the land, with an extremely high threshold needed to invoke it. That is a good thing, otherwise charter rights could be easily abused by governments.
That threshold is whether there is a national threat to public safety so serious that it cannot be addressed by any other law, yet we well know that there are many existing laws that can address illegal blockades of critical infrastructure, obviously. Maybe that is why the Liberals are hiding behind cabinet confidence and refusing to release documents justifying their decision to use these powers. It is because they know the threshold has not been met.
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- Apr/25/22 2:34:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that inquiry will be useless unless the Liberals waive cabinet confidence and allow Canadians to know the whole story. Really, the stakes could not be higher for Canadians, given that their charter rights are at risk with this unprecedented invocation of the Emergencies Act.
To be clear for Canadians at home, the emergency powers allow the government to freeze their bank accounts, seize their assets and suspend their charter rights, all without due process. That is why there is an extraordinarily high threshold needed to invoke it.
The Minister of Public Safety said today that he will be up front and transparent with Canadians. If that is the case, why would the Liberals not waive cabinet confidence? Are they hiding something?
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- Apr/25/22 2:35:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when it comes to the Emergencies Act, the government is still falling short on its duty to be transparent. Let us not forget that, in 2015, the government campaigned on being a global example of transparency. It is quite the opposite.
As required by the legislation, the government called an inquiry today, but it waited until the last minute to do so. What Canadians and especially we as parliamentarians want is to have access to the documents containing objective and factual information.
What is the government trying to hide by not presenting the inquiry documents to the House?
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- Apr/25/22 2:36:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as the member would probably be aware, section 63 of the Emergencies Act actually requires the government to call a public inquiry within 60 days. We have fulfilled that requirement of the act. We have also moved to fulfill the requirement by directing the public inquiry to conclude with a report back to the House by February 20, 2023.
Under the Inquiries Act, we have provided the commissioner with all the authorities he requires to compel witnesses and compel the delivery of documents to enable him to do his work. He will have access to the documents he requires, even classified documents, subject to appropriate limits on privilege that may exist.
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- Apr/25/22 2:39:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, recent court filings indicate the Liberals are refusing to reveal what information led the government to invoke the Emergencies Act in response to the “freedom convoy”. The government has yet to make a compelling argument that the invocation of the act actually met the incredibly high national security threshold. With this unprecedented use of the act, will the government finally be transparent and accountable to Canadians by sharing the information and documents it relied upon for invoking the Emergencies Act?
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- Apr/25/22 2:39:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would simply remind the member opposite that we complied very precisely with the requirements of the Emergencies Act. We stood up, at the first opportunity, a committee of parliamentarians to examine, as is required by the act, the circumstances giving rise to the invocation of the act, the measures that were invoked and the steps that were taken as a result.
We have also now complied with the act and established a commission of inquiry under the public Inquiries Act. We made the decision to establish that under the public Inquiries Act to ensure that the commissioner would have all the authorities he required to compel witnesses and to compel documents to do his job. That is the essence of being open and transparent.
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