Letter: Recent letter’s assertion of Emergencies Act and how it was implemented is false

By Letter to the Editor on July 14, 2022.

Dear Editor:

Re: July 13 letter from Mr. Ken Pirie

Mr. Pirie was inaccurate calling the Emergencies Act the “Emergency Measures Act,” which has never existed.

The Emergencies Act was passed by Mr. Mulroney’s government in 1987 to replace the old War Measures Act. As for loss of rights under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Emergencies Act is expressly subject to our Charter, which the old War Measures Act never was.

Additionally, the effect of the Emergencies Act is time-limited to 30 days, as specified in that Act, and it was only in effect for a designated part of downtown Ottawa, for an area around the entrance to the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, and for the areas around the border blockades at Coutts, Alta., at Emerson, Man., and at Surrey, B.C.

So, yes, for illegal occupiers in these select locations over a few days, certain rights were restricted. The old War Measures Act had no time limit and automatically covered the whole country on invocation.

Mr. Pirie’s statement that the invocation of the Emergencies Act “… violated the charter(sic) rights of every Canadian,” is false.

Also, the Emergencies Act was invoked solely by the Liberal government. Mr. Singh and the New Democrats did not invoke it because, not being the government, they could not. It is true that they did support the invocation of that Act some days later, when Parliament voted on the invocation of that Act, as is required under that Act.

Secondly, Ms. Tamara Lich was arrested on Feb. 17, 2022, and charged with a criminal offence. She has neither been found guilty, nor not guilty, proceedings not having gone that far.

Like anyone in Canada charged criminally she has had full access to judicial review of her detention. She was released, on conditions.

She has since been arrested again and had her bail revoked by the court for violating a condition of her release. This is an example of how criminal prosecution under our law has worked for decades, against probably hundreds of thousands of accused persons.

She certainly has not been “persecuted” by what is an ordinary criminal prosecution, which, having begun on Feb. 17, 2022, is, also, most certainly not “perpetual.”

Further regarding Ms. Lich, she must be capable of time-travel because Mr. Pirie says she challenged “… the Trudeau-Singh coalition.”

The agreement between the Liberals and the NDP was announced March 22, but the Ottawa occupation engineered by Ms. Lich and others ended on Feb. 20.

The suitability of Mr. Poilievre as a leader I will leave for another letter.

Yours truly,

Gregory R. Côté

Irvine

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