Emergency Measures Act | Ottawa almost liberated, will the situation change?

(Ottawa) Now that the police have largely regained control of the streets of Ottawa, the Emergency Measures Act is it still necessary? According to what was said in the House on Sunday, the Liberals and the New Democrats still believe that it is.

Melanie Marquis
The Press

The elected officials began the third day of debate on Sunday on the motion to ratify the declaration of crisis. Those who are there in person have seen firsthand that the police intervention has paid off, with the streets of the city center having been almost entirely free of the vehicles that have been blocking them since last January 28.

The Trudeau government needs the support of the New Democratic Party (NDP) so that the measure can be adopted in the House of Commons. The Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois oppose it.

New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh, however, warned last week that he could withdraw his support if he saw the government abusing its power.

Her MP Heather McPherson repeated the same on Sunday morning.

“We will not hesitate to do so”, she launched in the House, assuring that it was not with lightness of heart that her formation would give its stamp of approval to a law which has never been used. since its adoption in 1988.

“As parliamentarians, we must make sure this never happens again […]. The failures of municipal, provincial and federal governments put us in a position where we are forced to resort to extraordinary measures to move forward, ”lamented the elected official from Alberta.

Bloc Québécois and Conservatives criticize the NDP

Last week, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, went so far as to request a meeting with Jagmeet Singh in order to rally him to his position against the use of Emergency Measures Act.

“The NDP said they might change their mind and vote against [la loi] if ever the police operation was over before Monday’s vote, then we will have to see if they change their tune,” said Bloc Québécois MP Kristina Michaud in an interview on Sunday.

The elected official noted, however, that it was “hard to take stock of an operation which is still in progress, to assess whether this law was really necessary”, recalling that the police forces managed to release the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor and Detroit, before the invocation of the Emergency Measures Act.

Ottawa Police Service (OPS) Acting Chief Steve Bell said it was helpful in the police response, which involved officers from across the country, including those from the Quebec Security.

As for Conservative MP John Barlow, he mocked the New Democrats. “I like the fact that the NDP is trying to get out of the corner in which it has painted itself,” he said, accusing the party of having wanted to make this file “an issue of white supremacy”, did he declare.

In the Conservative benches, the Liberals are pounded as much as the NDP.

The New Democrats, whose support would allow the motion to pass, “completely abandoned the principles of the party” of Tommy Douglas, who had voted against the War Measures Act – the ancestor of the Emergency Measures Act – in 1970, denounced, among others, the deputy Mike Lake.

His colleague Ed Fast, however, made an amalgam between the two, depicting the protesters as peaceful people, in his experience.

“I never felt intimidated. Yes, there were people who spoke loudly, some with strong opinions. But did it take Emergency Measures Act, this sledgehammer law with measures that look like war measures, to solve the problem? No,” he told the Commons.

Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos then wanted to qualify.

“It’s a strange way of looking at things to say that the law grants martial-style powers to the government. It is also the wrong way to look at it, because the law is subject to the Charter, it is time-limited and it is geographically concentrated,” he retorted.

The vote on the use of Emergency Measures Act at place Monday evening, at 8 p.m.

If it is endorsed by the deputies, it will go to the Senate.