Invoking the Emergencies Act is the logical conclusion of Trudeau's government by decree
National Post, 16 February 2022
The Emergencies Act is a fitting denouement, after two years of incompetence and overreach, to our national pandemic pantomime
So emaciated is the state of Canadian democracy that the declaration of the Emergencies Act — formerly known as martial law in the time of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s father — might be an improvement.
The Emergencies Act requires Parliament to vote within seven days. After two years of being governed by press conference, with fundamental liberties withdrawn by the simple fiat of a first minister or chief medical officer, a vote in Parliament seems boldly innovative, just like it did back in Queen Victoria’s time.
Perhaps Trudeau boned up on history during his recent COVID isolation, watching those cute “Heritage Minutes” about the “Canadian idea” of responsible government, the executive being held accountable to Parliament by constitutional convention.
Recall that the pandemic prime minister governed for more than a year without proposing a budget to Parliament, which, unlike liquor stores, was not considered an essential service. Even more, he proposed governance by decree entirely — irresponsible government? — until his naked power grab was exposed and the putative emperor had to put his clothes back on.
This time, we shall have a vote in Parliament and the NDP, which distinguished itself by opposing Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s declaration of martial law in 1970 — in the face of prevailing public opinion — has indicated that it will side with the government. Progressives in 1970 were made of sterner stuff.
Thus the emergency powers will likely get parliamentary approbation, and Canada will become the first democracy to suspend normal governance in order to enable a forlorn and feckless — and now former — police chief to commandeer tow trucks. Should the prime minister’s motorcade have a dead battery during a cold snap, will he employ the Emergencies Act to commandeer the CAA to give him a boost?
It is all quite ridiculous. Like so much of the past two years, it is unnecessary public theatre. The prime minister conceded as much when he said, “This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people’s jobs and restoring confidence in our institutions.”
The last part gives it away. Just as his father declared martial law principally to strike a mighty blow for the federal government against Quebec separatism — civil liberties be damned — this latest manoeuvre is to restore confidence in the federal government, or more particularly, the prime minister. A political emergency for him now constitutes an emergency for the country.
“The scope of these measures will be time limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address,” Trudeau said with a straight face, nearly two years after the first “time-limited” and “proportionate” pandemic measures were introduced.
He seems blithely unaware that the proximate cause of the convoy was a vaccine mandate that was wildly disproportionate, in an industry in which 90 per cent of truckers are already vaccinated and spend more time alone than practically any other profession.
The Emergencies Act is a fitting denouement, after two years of incompetence and overreach, to our national pandemic pantomime. Canadians have been forbidden from travelling to their own homes in the Maritimes. Cathedrals that can comfortably seat 2,000 were limited to five people.
How did we get here? The curtain on pandemic theatre rose just days after the Indigenous blockades of pipeline work sites and railways in February 2020. In response to that, federal and provincial ministers quickly concluded a deal to hand over new authority to the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs in northern British Columbia. The elected chiefs were cut out of the negotiations. The trucker convoy took note.
The next great scene of pandemic theatre featured the Black Lives Matter protests, in which all social distancing and public gathering rules were cast aside. The prime minister even took a cameo knee. Canadians who were told to “follow the science” took note that political science seemed to be the better lens through which to look.
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