Reject Rouleau, Repeal the EA

Vincent J. Curtis

27 Feb 23

RE: Act quickly on Rouleau’s prescriptions.  Spectator editorial 27 Feb 23.

This editorial summarizes the best that can be said about the Rouleau Report: act on it quickly before it’s import is absorbed.

 

What are Rouleau’s prescriptions the Spectator wants acted upon: strengthening the security state; and that the Emergencies Act be amended to allow the cabinet to invoke it whenever it damn well pleases?  This latter recommendation by Rouleau is an inter alia admission that the Trudeau government invoked the EA unlawfully.  It doesn’t matter that the provision ought to be updated.  The fact is, it was as it was at the time, and the law at the time did not justify the invocation.

Rouleau found the freezing of bank accounts problematic; but the purpose of invoking the EA was to precisely confer the power to do so on the government.  This arbitrary power is contrary to the due process rights guaranteed by the Charter, and the EA is supposed to respect Charter rights.  This is a contradiction Rouleau realizes but can’t quite bring himself to say.

If we are to prevent a repeat of the Freedom Convoy, the answer is to not oppress middle class working people beyond all tolerance with more and more arbitrary state power, imposed ad hoc and in defiance of previous promises.  (Remember Trudeau promised no vaccine mandates during the 2021 election?)

The solution to bad government isn’t more power, the solution is good government, as in “peace, order, and good government.”  Bad government is plainly disruptive of peace and order.

Rouleau fecklessly gave the government a year to respond to his non-binding recommendations; well, what if they don’t?

We don’t need an Emergencies Act.  The one we have ought to be repealed, being dangerous to our rights and freedoms, particularly if the standard of declaration remains a state secret.  The EA of 1988 wouldn’t have passed if it weren’t connected to the CSIS Act, and we didn’t have an EA invocation from Dec 1970 (the end of the FLQ crisis) until Feb 2022.  The EA cannot be invoked and have our Charter rights respected.  You can’t square that circle.  Emergency legislation should be passed through parliament as needed instead.

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