Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted that his invoking emergency powers was not to protect the homeland from Freedom Convoy demonstrations but to teach them about the “consequences” of crossing him.
Trudeau defended his invocation of the Emergencies Act after a Parliamentary session Tuesday when asked whether he’d “gone too far” in granting the government the unilateral powers to seize citizens’ bank accounts.
“This is something that is important for Canadians to know that there will be consequences for people who are breaking the law and who are supporting those who are breaking the law,” Trudeau replied.
Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau says new emergency powers are needed because “it’s important for Canadians to know that there will be consequences for those breaking the law and those supporting those breaking the law.”
MORE: https://t.co/XQqZr4vN0X pic.twitter.com/VheMFWsSy3
— Mauricio (@_m2pacheco) February 15, 2022
Trudeau claimed the new emergency declaration is “proportional” and “responsible” despite the fact it had never been invoked before in Canada’s history.
“The Emergencies Act is something that is proportional and responsible to move forward with to indicate that these blockades should be done and people should go home,” he added before walking away.
Rebel News founder Ezra Levant noted that Trudeau effectively admitted that he didn’t invoke the Emergencies Act based on the strict national security criteria required, but because he was on a vendetta.
“So he confesses what we all knew — there was no true national emergency. He was just embarrassed by the truckers. Threatening Canadians is his personal vengeance style, it’s not a legal rationale for suspending civil liberties and the rule of law,” Levant tweeted.
So he confesses what we all knew — there was no true national emergency. He was just embarrassed by the truckers. Threatening Canadians is his personal vengeance style, it’s not a legal rationale for suspending civil liberties and the rule of law. https://t.co/tzubOqM22i
— Ezra Levant (@ezralevant) February 15, 2022
The criteria for an emergency defined in the Emergency Powers Act is an extremely high threshold saved for dire threats to the homeland, noted The Toronto Sun’s Joanna Baron.
“The Act defines an emergency as a situation that ‘seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians’ or ‘seriously threatens the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada,’” Baron wrote Monday.
Notably absent from the Act’s emergency criteria are “lawful advocacy, protest or dissent.”
“The Ottawa protests certainly pose a nuisance but have been largely peaceful and non-life-threatening,” Baron observed. “Disruptive and noisy protests are the lifeblood of vibrant democracies, absent violence or property damage, the demonstrations cannot constitute a national emergency.”
Half of Canada’s provinces also agree that Trudeau proclaiming emergency powers was “unhelpful” and “unnecessary.”
Likewise, the The Canadian Civil Liberties Association condemned Trudeau’s authoritarian move as “unjustified” by “facts and reality.”
Trudeau’s emergency powers declaration is so unpopular that he was drowned out by hecklers in Parliament when trying to justify them, with no support from his own political side.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gets heckled by the opposition while trying to defend why he invoked the Emergencies Act.https://t.co/DEN7zzSz9G for more. pic.twitter.com/orwkQ8EGnj
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) February 15, 2022
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