Mr. Chair, this is not an exercise of judicial interpretation of a statute. That is not our responsibility. While I have the utmost respect for my colleague, Mr. Virani, I respectfully disagree with his literal interpretation of the language of this particular statute.
An argument could be made.... I do not dismiss his argument, but our mandate is to provide clarity to Canadians. It's not necessarily just taking a look at a snapshot in time from the date of invocation and reviewing all the circumstances prospectively forward. In my opinion, sir, with all due respect, it would be a dereliction of our responsibility if we did not take a look at all of the circumstances that created the emergency in the first place.
In our view, no one can reasonably be expected to review the declaration without looking at the reasons for the declaration. If the emergency proclamation was unlawful, it follows that the exercise of powers would be equally unlawful.