This Trudeau apology is 50 years overdue

National Post, 22 September 2020

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh should demand a free vote in the House condemning the invocation of martial law by Pierre Trudeau's government.

What will the NDP do in the new session of Parliament? Will the Liberal government’s expected shift to the left squeeze them out? That’s about the present and future; herewith some (unsolicited) advice for the NDP about the past.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the “October Crisis,” the invocation of martial law by the government of Pierre Trudeau in 1970.

The throne speech will take place on Wednesday and is always followed by a vote of confidence. The minority government will need the support of either the NDP or the Bloc Québécois to survive. In his negotiations with the government for such support, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh should demand a free vote in the House on a motion apologizing for the invocation of the War Measures Act in 1970, and finding that the Trudeau government of the day was unjustified in declaring martial law.

It may not be a tough negotiation; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is fond of apologizing for other people, and may well find it congenial that contrition can begin at home, as it were. In any case, in a minority Parliament the NDP could find another way to bring its motion to the floor. But to allow Liberal MPs to vote freely on it would require the prime minister’s consent.

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