OTTAWA: The Justice Centre today announced its opposition to any rumoured declaration of a national emergency under the federal Emergencies Act, which defines “national emergency” as follows:
For the purposes of this Act, a national emergency is an urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature that
- (a) seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it, or
- (b) seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada
and that cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.
The Justice Centre announced that if a national emergency is declared over peacefully protesting truckers in Ottawa, it will immediately file a court application seeking to overturn such a declaration.
“Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau used the War Measures Act in 1970 to deal with violence, kidnapping and murder committed by terrorists in Quebec. Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is considering using the Emergencies Act to deal with bouncy castles and ball hockey,” says lawyer Jay Cameron, Litigation Director at the Justice Centre.
“Peaceful protesters who feed the homeless, shovel snow, pick up garbage, dance in the streets, play street hockey, wave Canadian flags, sing the national anthem and set up bouncy castles for children do not ‘seriously endanger the lives, health or safety of Canadians,’ nor are these peaceful activities ‘of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it’,” states Mr. Cameron.
Sworn affidavits about the situation in Ottawa, filed with the courts, indicate that the truckers are ‘friendly, courteous, humble, considerate and peaceful.’
The peaceful nature of the truckers’ protest has also been confirmed by numerous media sources and by hundreds if not thousands of videos taken by people on the ground in Ottawa.
“Truckers in Ottawa sitting in hot tubs by their trucks do not ‘seriously threaten the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada.’ The only reason the truckers are still in Ottawa is because the arrogant political elite refuse to discuss the truckers’ concerns over the loss of their civil liberties, and authoritarian vaccination mandates”, stated Cameron.
If the Emergencies Act is invoked, the federal government will have to demonstrate to a court how existing powers, both municipal and provincial laws, such as bylaws, are insufficient to deal with any issues.”
