I'd be glad to do that, Senator. Thank you.
First, the old War Measures Act was very limited in its scope. It had to be war or apprehended insurrection. Indeed, the October 1970 crisis was based on apprehended insurrection.
We recognized the fact that in the future there would be a wide range of emergencies that might require the government to assume extraordinary powers to save people's lives or to protect the integrity of the country. We needed to have legislation in place, considered in a period of calm, that would give the government the ability to respond very rapidly and effectively, but that would be counterbalanced by having adequate scrutiny by the courts and by Parliament, and would ensure the civil liberties of Canadians. At its root, that was the most fundamental element.
The old War Measures Act was used to suspend the civil rights of Canadians in 1970, right across the country, even though the situation was concentrated in Quebec. It suspended the right of habeas corpus. It allowed people to be held without charge for up to 21 days. It allowed censorship. There were any number of abuses that took place as a consequence. Mr. Trudeau, when he invoked the act, immediately said that he wished he had something else and that he would replace what he had with other legislation that was more nuanced and would better protect civil liberties. That's what we ultimately ended up doing, so many years later.