National Post: 'Protests aren’t emergencies, even if the protests are disruptive and even if the protests have illegal elements. Politicians and police must handle civil disobedience using the laws they have available to them rather than invoking emergency legislation whose criteria they do not meet and which has a dark history of abuse.
'Additionally, the government will need to defend that the emergency measures they enacted were compliant with the Charter. There has been much punditry about the fact that the Emergencies Act is subject to the Charter. Which is, of course, true. All statutes, orders and regulations are subject to Canada’s Constitution. However, this does not mean that the government always acts in a way that is compliant with the Charter. In this case, the emergency measures violated the right to free assembly, the right to be free from unreasonable search, and the right to liberty. These violations are not minimally impairing and are not justified infringements, especially given that they have are continued even after the protests have cleared.
'The interpretation of the Emergencies Act by the courts will be historic, and the declaration of a public order emergency will be seen as a grave mistake that should never be repeated again.'
Commenti