Justin Trudeau's Illegal Power Grab
Justin Trudeau's decision represents a frightening precedent for government responses to civil objections to COVID measures
At the funeral for his father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a heartfelt eulogy in which he told a story of how his father taught him not to not deride political rivals. “As I guess it is for most kids, in Grade 3,” Trudeau recounted, “it was always a real treat to visit my dad at work. As on previous visits, this particular occasion included a lunch at the parliamentary restaurant, which always seemed terribly important and full of serious people that I didn’t recognize.”
“But at eight, I was becoming politically aware. And I recognized one whom I knew to be one of my father’s chief rivals. Thinking of pleasing my father, I told a joke about him. A generic, silly little grade school thing. My father looked at me sternly, with that look I would learn to know so well, and said: ‘Justin, we never attack the individual. We can be in total disagreement with someone, without denigrating them as a consequence,’ and, saying that, he stood up, took me by the hand and brought me over to introduce me to this man.”
Trudeau appeared to have forgotten that story when he recently made the following remarks about the unvaccinated: “They don’t believe in science/progress and are very often misogynistic and racist....This leads us, as a leader and as a country, to make a choice: Do we tolerate these people?"
Then, on February 14, 2022, Trudeau declared all-out war on his political rivals, invoking the never-before-used Emergencies Act to quell protests led by a convoy of truckers in response to his oppressive COVID-19 mandates.
His invocation of the Emergencies Act represents an unprecedented and illegal power grab that should make freedom-loving citizens across the world terrified.
What is the Emergencies Act?
The Emergencies Act is a statute passed by the Parliament of Canada in 1988 that authorizes the federal government to take extraordinary temporary measures to respond to certain types of emergencies. The law replaced the War Measures Act, which was passed in 1914.
It has never been used since its inception.
Does the Emergencies Act Apply?
I am not Canadian, but I am a lawyer admitted to practice in three different states in the United States, and I read the Emergencies Act in its entirety. It does not apply to this situation. At all.
The Act can be invoked for four different types of emergencies: (1) a public welfare emergency, (2) a public order emergency, (3) an international emergency, or (4) a war emergency. The second type of emergency — a public order emergency — is the only category that could apply here. These protests are neither an “international” nor a “war” emergency, and a “public welfare emergency” must involve “fire, flood, drought, storm, earthquake or other natural phenomenon,” “disease in human beings, animals or plants, or . . . accident or pollution.” None of the latter items exist here.
In contrast, a “public order emergency” is defined as “an emergency that arises from threats to the security of Canada and that is so serious as to be a national emergency.” Thus, it must involve some form of threat to the entire country. A localized protest in Ottawa is not a national emergency by any stretch of the imagination.
What Powers Does the Emergencies Act Give Trudeau?
The Act gives Trudeau enormous, far-reaching powers. For a public order emergency, it permits the government to prohibit public assembly, prohibit travel to and from specific areas, prohibit the use of specific property, and direct individuals or businesses to render certain essential services.
The latter power is truly profound. If you are a contractor (like a towing company), for example, the government can order you to assist in clearing out protestors or vehicles protestors used to block streets.
The Act also permits the government to order the evacuation of people and personal property from certain areas.
Accordingly, the government could bar people from certain public areas or from accessing major border crossings.
Justin Trudeau or Fidel Castro?
As the son of Cuban immigrants, I am all too familiar with the actions taken by totalitarian regimes to quell public dissent. I have come to accept the fact that Communism exists just 90 miles south of the United States — on the beautiful island of Cuba, which has been imprisoned by the Castro regime since 1959.
I never anticipated, however, a tyrant just across the northern border of the United States. Canada was always thought to be similar to the United States, albeit with a much colder climate. What Trudeau has done, however, is downright terrifying. His actions do not resemble those of a leader of a free country; rather, he is mimicking the tyrannical actions of many Communist and Socialist despots throughout the last 100 years. His actions are unacceptable, and Canadians must hold firm and resist this unprecedented overreach of power.