As the conflict between Canadian truckers, opposed to the health measures currently applied in the country, enters its third week, the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, finally resorted, on Monday February 14, to an exceptional law in an attempt to end the siege of Ottawa that began on January 29 and lift the blockades that still paralyze border crossings in Alberta and Manitoba.
This is the first time that this “emergency measures” legislation, passed in 1988, is invoked by the federal government. Concretely, it grants the Royal Canadian Mounted Police the power to enforce provincial and municipal laws in the field. In the case of the current blockages, it gives the police additional powers to impose fines on truckers engaged in this movement, qualified on several occasions as“illegal” by the head of government, or imprison protesters blocking strategic sites. It also allows the seizure of protesters’ property, in this case their trucks, by simple decree.
A “time-limited and geographically targeted” law
Corn “this does not mean that we call on the military”immediately added Justin Trudeau, who had already said on Friday that sending the military against civilians would not be an option considered “only as a last, last resort”. “We do not limit freedom of expression or the right to demonstrate peacefully. What we want is to ensure the safety of Canadians, protect jobs and restore confidence in our institutions.”, he declared, taking care to specify that this law in no way suspended the fundamental rights included in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A strong way to stand out from the management of a certain Pierre Elliott Trudeau, his father. In 1970, then Prime Minister, he used the War Measures Act to send the army to put down the violent actions carried out by the Front de libération du Québec. This episode caused lasting trauma for the Canadian nation, which saw in it an inexcusable derogation from the rule of law. ” This lawpromised Justin Trudeau, will be time-limited, geographically targeted and commensurate with threats to the security of Canada. »
The legislative text specifies that such a law may be invoked when “critical circumstances of an urgent and temporary nature seriously endanger the life, health or safety of Canadians”. It is indeed these threats to the country’s security that seem to have prompted the Liberal government to take this exceptional step. The same morning, the Canadian police had seized weapons, ammunition, bulletproof vests and arrested 11 people on the border blockade of Coutts, in Alberta, a crossing point with the United States, paralyzed for a week.
You have 38.77% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.