Ottawa should make the case for extra powers to deal with occupations and blockades

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/02/2022 (1075 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Police gave a master class over the weekend in how to end a mass protest that had developed into an illegal occupation of downtown Ottawa.

Local police were supported by officers from many forces across Ontario and Quebec. They developed a comprehensive plan to end the occupation, and they executed it with minimum force.

They showed determination combined with patience. It took two full days and nights to move out the demonstrators, clear away the trucks, and restore order to the streets of Ottawa. It was an impressive display of both force and restraint.

Now we’re left to deal with the mess left behind — both the detritus on the streets of Ottawa and the political legacy of anger, distrust and open hatred on open display over the past month.

To begin with, the House of Commons was preparing on Monday to vote in favour of the Emergencies Act, with New Democrats joining Liberals in approving use of this extraordinary measure.

We were skeptical when the government invoked the act on Feb. 14. Border blockades were already being ended without use of the act, and the government did not make a convincing case that those disruptions and the Ottawa occupation amounted to a national emergency in the sense of the law.

In fact, the federal government was reaching for the sledgehammer of the Emergencies Act because of the abject failure of other levels of government.

The City of Ottawa and its local police force were helpless. And the government that should have stepped forward to make sure police had the resources they needed — the provincial government of Doug Ford — went AWOL. It acted as though Ottawa was in some other jurisdiction entirely, instead of being Ontario’s second largest city.

So in came the feds, declaring a national emergency and finally giving police the political encouragement they obviously needed to take action.

It’s still not clear whether the powers of the federal Emergencies Act were needed to clear the streets of Ottawa.

The government says it gave police the power to set up “secure areas,” including much of central Ottawa and ban people from entering without good reason, thereby reducing the number of people joining the protesters.

And it says the act gave it the power to freeze bank accounts and credit cards of leaders of the protest, and to stop foreign funds from being directed to the so-called Freedom Convoy.

Those are strong powers, and they should not be used lightly. It’s possible to oppose the goals and conduct of the convoy protesters strongly, and still worry that reaching for the most extreme federal emergency power sets a worrisome precedent.

But that precedent has now been set, with Parliament’s approval. It’s less important to hash over what might have been than to make sure any risk of government overreach is minimized in the coming days.

In that regard it was encouraging on Monday to hear Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stating that the government does not intend to use the Emergencies Act a day longer than necessary.

The law is certainly nothing like the threat to civil liberties posed by the War Measures Act it replaced. But the whole point is that it gives the government extraordinary powers to deal with a real emergency, and to the extent that the emergency has been dealt with, the justification for special powers vanishes.

There’s a good case to be made for giving government new powers to deal with occupation-style protests and blockades. In particular, the money behind such movements must be controlled.

It’s now time for the government to make that case and seek approval from Parliament for such powers. They should not be rushed in under the cover of an emergency whose urgency is rapidly ebbing.