![]() ![]() Ryan Alford is a professor in the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Accountability and the rule of law demand nothing less. Instead, Commissioner Rouleau’s role should be performed in the future by a jurist selected upon the unanimous assent of all the members of the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of the Emergency, which must include Senators and Members of Parliament from all parties. No one - and especially not the cabinet - should be allowed to select the judge of its own momentous cause, as this is directly contrary to the most elementary principles of natural justice. Our legislators might also consider one recommendation from legal scholars that Rouleau chose not to include in his report: that in the future, the government should not have the power to choose the commissioner who sits in judgement of its actions. While Commissioner Rouleau did not heed West’s wise words, it is not too late for Parliament to do so, by rejecting recommendations to change the threshold for invoking the Emergencies Act in ways that would be too expansive or overtly political. While certainly these activities threaten trade and Canada’s economic interests, they do not fall within (the definition of a public order emergency) no matter how broadly one interprets it.” Summarizing her views, Professor West said: “I do not believe this Commission or the Freedom Convoy should form the factual basis for those reforms.” This country has a long history of protests along rail corridors and ports. When making this recommendation, Rouleau rejected the plain and direct advice not to do so provided by the foremost experts his research commission chose to invite.Ĭarleton University Professor Leah West noted during policy roundtables at the inquiry that “we have never labelled blockades and other non-violent but illegal means of obstructing critical infrastructure as terrorism. Jamie Sarkonak: Freedom Convoy report sets dark precedent on freezing bank accounts.Jesse Kline: Emergencies Act report a slap in the face to Canadians.When stated in the bureaucratic jargon into which Rouleau’s recommendations lapses at every critical passage, this would merely constitute “providing the government with the tools necessary to address these situations.” any necessary modernization of the (Emergencies) Act.” Rouleau concluded that “threats to Canada that constitute public order emergencies have evolved in the 35 years since Parliament chose to set the threshold.”Īnd so, he recommended that Parliament consider whether the economic harm caused by large-scale protests should be included in the act as another valid legal basis for the government to shut them down with its almost limitless emergency powers. lone wolf actors are very difficult to detect and predict.” Further, he argued that “there was a legitimate concern that similar individuals or groups intent on violence might be present in Ottawa or at other protests.” It is very difficult to imagine how any future large-scale protest in the future would not constitute a threat to the security of Canada and would fail to meet this test.Īfter setting an ominous precedent for treating the statutory threshold of a public order emergency as a broad, open-ended, and ultimately political determination, Rouleau took seriously the cabinet’s direction to “make recommendations on. ![]() the protests, might conduct an attack against soft targets. After all, he suggests, “a lone wolf actor, inspired by. Rouleau transformed the requirement of an actually existing threat to national security to the mere possibility of such a threat emerging. However, his slipshod analysis of the threshold for declaring a public order emergency creates a dangerous precedent by lowering the bar to new depths. Rouleau dutifully recited the reassuring litany that emergency powers should be exceptionally rare. George Washington University Professor Jonathan Turley did not mince words, calling Rouleau’s report “a disgraceful legitimation of a crackdown on free speech.”Įven more troubling than the report’s insipid endorsement of censorship is its manifest support for the government’s desire that it be much easier for it to declare public order emergencies in the future. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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