Freedom Convoy protests [Split from All things 2019-nCoV]

[kratz]

Any time the federal government assumes extraordinary powers, there is a real risk to undermining democratic principles. However, a key point is that the Act’s implementation in 2022 was not a power grab action moving toward dictatorship as claimed by conservative lawmakers (Quay, 2022). It was a fully legal procedure to deal with an emergency implemented under a very strict and specific enabling process enshrined in Canadian law.

When the Emergencies Act succeeded the War Measures Act in 1988, it introduced changes regarding how the federal government can use extraordinary powers in times of crisis. Those changes include compensating people affected by government actions during emergencies and provisions of the Act being subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Smith et al., 2020).

The Act was not used to compel tow truck companies to provide services, even though it could have been legally used in that way. Indeed, the devil is in the details.

The circumstances of February 2022 provided us with a real-life example of how the threshold was crossed to the last resort. A situation of protests, blockades, and occupations by disgruntled citizens was met with numerous shortcomings in response activities.

Rozdilsky, J.L., & Jani, M. (2023). Emergency Management’s last resort: The 2022 invocation of Canada’s Emergencies Act.
HazNet, 18(1), 37-40. Emergency Management’s last resort: The 2022 invocation of Canada’s Emergencies Act | HazNet

 

[Jarnhamar]

It's too bad we'll never know about the secret orders-in-council, which are hidden from Parliament and Canadians, the Liberals passed during the emergency act.

 

[Halifax Tar]

It's too bad we'll never know about the secret orders-in-council, which are hidden from Parliament and Canadians, the Liberals passed during the emergency act.

They did what now ?

 

[Jarnhamar]

They did what now ?

To be fair the Liberals really started ramping them as soon as Covid hit.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/secret-orders-in-council-1.6467450

 

[Halifax Tar]

To be fair the Liberals really started ramping them as soon as Covid hit.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/secret-orders-in-council-1.6467450

Oh good. I'm sure it was all with our best interests at heart.

 

[Spencer100]

To be fair the Liberals really started ramping them as soon as Covid hit.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/secret-orders-in-council-1.6467450

The last 3 years has shown that the conspiracy theories have just been spoiler alerts.

I just think back to high school history and civics (sorry social studies the name change started the fall) class and think we just had a real life test. The grade is F.

Horns and bouncy castles = war measures act (sorry emergencies act)

From the Magna Carta to the Bill of Rights.....today's world....throw it all the trash if the government can't get its way.

We very well and truly are in the twilight of western civilization.

 

[dimsum]

It's too bad we'll never know about the secret orders-in-council, which are hidden from Parliament and Canadians, the Liberals passed during the emergency act.

Wait, if they’re secret and hidden from Parliament and Canadians, how did you find out about it?

 

[Lumber]

Horns and bouncy castles = war measures act (sorry emergencies act)

I get that this is just an anonymous online forum, but common, do better.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Wait, if they’re secret and hidden from Parliament and Canadians, how did you find out about it?

Trudeau brought it up in 2015 when he criticized the Conservatives for the number of secret OICs they adopted. Then he turned around and adopted more than twice as many.

 

[Good2Golf]

Hyperbole, much?

First, bank accounts weren't frozen willy-nilly. The accounts belonged to those who were organizers, the truckers themselves, and those who contributed significant funds (if you donated $20, you weren't looked at).

Not hyperbole…perhaps look at the reality without rose coloured glasses?

In fact, senior Federal bureaucrats (an Associate DM is pretty darned high up!) even provided a mealy-mouthed “we didn’t intend to…” non-apology about how people were unintentionally affected:

In freezing the bank accounts of Freedom Convoy protesters, Finance Canada bureaucrats said they did not intend to hurt protesters’ families’ ability to buy groceries or pay child support, though they admitted that may have ultimately happened, the Emergencies Act inquiry heard Thursday.

In hindsight, the department could have better circumscribed the power to freeze Freedom Convoy organizers’ bank accounts because “the intent was not to unduly affect payments of child support or other payments,” Finance Canada assistant deputy minister Isabelle Jacques told the commission.

Bureaucrats who froze bank accounts of Freedom Convoy leaders weren't trying to 'get at the family'

Top officials at Finance Canada grilled at the inquiry into the Emergencies Act

nationalpost.com

Asst DM Jacques didn’t specifically refer to a single-mother in BC making minimum wage having her working checking account frozen for a $50 donation to the Convoy in the early days…but it happened. No umicorns. No fairie dust. Just a frozen account for a legal $50 donation.

Anyway, glad that the imposition of frozen bank accounts didn’t negatively impact you, Lumber.

 

[dimsum]

Trudeau brought it up in 2015 when he criticized the Conservatives for the number of secret OICs they adopted. Then he turned around and adopted more than twice as many.

Again, if they’re secret, how does one know how many there were?

 

[Jarnhamar]

Again, if they’re secret, how does one know how many there were?

It's in the article I posted to Halifax Tar's comment.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/secret-orders-in-council-1.6467450

 

[Spencer100]

I get that this is just an anonymous online forum, but common, do better.

Huh? That is totality of the whole thing in a nutshell. Really nothing more.....Trudeau was made to look bad and the bouncy castles was the straw the broke the back. You can argue about this and that police should have done this, or the premier should have done that, or the mayor. In the end it's all meaningless. We failed, 900 years of civil rights from Magna Carta to the Bill of Rights can be flushed because of a PM's whim.

So yes bouncy castles = war measures. Is the best and most truthfull way to put it.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

SCC may not end up hearing it. This was a judicial review in Federal Court. Next step is the federal court of appeals, which should have three justices hear it. If FCA returns a unanimous decision, SCC would only hear it if they give leave to appeal. That would only happen if the appellant (whichever side that be) is able to articulate compelling grounds for appeal.

I’m speculating, but if a panel of the FCA affirm the FC decision unanimously, I would be surprised to see SCC take it up.

Thanks Bri I didn't know that. I could've sworn I read it was going to the SCC. Guess not. Cheers

I still think they'll use the 'before the courts' ploy to,stifle opposition questions.

 

[brihard]

Thanks Bri I didn't know that. I could've sworn I read it was going to the SCC. Guess not. Cheers

I still think they'll use the 'before the courts' ploy to,stifle opposition questions.

I think I actually had a brain fart upthread and mentioned SCC before realizing I was missing a step, so it may have been me.

 

[OldSolduer]

Wait, if they’re secret and hidden from Parliament and Canadians, how did you find out about it?

The knowledge that there are secret orders is well known - how many or what the substance is we will never know.

SOMETIMES there must be secret orders in council. The public sometimes does not need to know, despite everyone thinking they should know.

 

[Halifax Tar]

I get that this is just an anonymous online forum, but common, do better.

I do appreciate your counter balance to us here. We can defiantly be a silo at times.

 

[Jarnhamar]

SOMETIMES there must be secret orders in council. The public sometimes does not need to know, despite everyone thinking they should know.

Very true. In our governments case their is a lot they believe the public doesn't need to know. From our politicians being compromised by foreign countries to trying to hide fiscal details about the PMs vacations (that has no impact on national security). They disdain Parliament oversight.

In the case of the emergencies act I read the Liberal party wanted to use their own definition of what an emergency was to justify enacting it - but refused to disclose what that definition is.

Hence just imagine what kind kind of shadow OICs they snuck through.

 

[lenaitch]

Just imagine if the City of Ottawa/Ottawa Police Service had actually done their jobs in the first place, all of this angst over the role of the federal government would have been avoided and we could go on to dislike them for other reasons.

 

[FSTO]

Nobody's minds have been changed from this court case.

Call me petty but for me, I enjoy seeing the egg on the current cabinet's face. They remind me of the pious evangelical railing about the evils of homosexuality while performing fellatio in the local spa. They are so sure in their righteousness that they are stunned, STUNNED when the great unwashed don't kiss their feet.

The only thing I miss is the astonished look on Marco Mendocino's face when he is hit with the latest out of the blue (for him) self inflicted crisis.