Prime Minister revokes Emergencies Act

The Prime Minister of Canada has revoked the Emergencies Act.

“We have now seen and been assured by our police forces and jurisdictions across the country that they now have sufficient tools in regular times to deal with any further challenges and therefore, we are pleased to be able to move and revoke the emergencies act,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

On Monday, February 21, the House of Commons voted to approve Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act with the support of the New Democratic Party, over the objections of the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois.

The Senate had not yet voted on the exceptional measures. However, Sen. Pierre Dalphond, a Trudeau appointee and former judge,  announced today that he will be voting against the Emergencies Act because he believes it violates sec.8 of the Charter, “The right to be secure against unreasonable search  or seizure.”

“As we know, over the course of a couple of weeks, the barricades and occupations got implanted to a level that we felt last Monday that we needed to give time-limited, proportional, reasonable, charter compliant, extra tools to our authorities to be able to remove those barricades and those occupations,” Prime Minister Trudeau said. “This past weekend. We saw that happen and as of Monday, Ottawa was clear occupations and border crossings across the country where we spent the last couple of days leaning in with public safety authorities with police forces across the country and ensuring that even as we recognize that emergency like it was ending a threat remained. They had the tools that Canada has the tools in normal times, not under the emergencies act to deal with the potential threat returning. And we got a high level of confidence that the existing tools that police forces have across the country will be sufficient to deal with further disruptions.”

Federal finance officials told a parliamentary committee Tuesday, February 22, that the RCMP and financial institutions had begun to unfreeze accounts of organizers and participants now that the “illegal” blockades were ended.

“As soon as the Governor-General signs the proclamation, which should happen in the coming hours with respect to the end of other measures, yes, those measures will no longer be in effect,” Prime Minister Trudeau said.