Declaration of Emergency Committee on April 26th, 2022

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

I would like to welcome the Minister of Justice and his officials.

Minister, you will have five minutes for your opening remarks. I would note that your officials may be reinvited to appear before the committee. I therefore ask that you answer the questions put to you on your own as best you can. However, you may consult them should you require assistance, even though, ideally, we would prefer that you allow us the entire hour and a half that you've made available to us.

That said, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[David Lametti, Liberal, Minister of Justice]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

I am very happy to be here with you this evening to discuss the emergency measures that were used for the first time in the history of this country.

I am accompanied by François Daigle, Deputy Minister, and Samantha Maislin Dickson, Jenifer Aitken and Heather Watts, from the Department of Justice. They will support me, as you noted, on any technical matters that may arise.

I am very happy to be here with you on the traditional land of the Anishinabe Algonquin people.

As you know, on February 14 our government invoked the Emergencies Act, declaring a public order emergency pursuant to part II of the act. This was not a decision we took lightly—far from it.

However, upon consulting leaders across the country, including all provincial and territorial premiers, we found that the situation had exceeded their capacity and power to intervene and that other tools were needed to protect the safety of Canada and Canadians.

Our government was very clear from the outset that the Emergencies Act was to be applied only as long as was considered absolutely necessary. Which is why we closely monitored the situation to ensure that the measures taken were still necessary, reasonable and proportional to the situation. Thanks to the work of law enforcement organizations across the country, we were soon able to announce, on February 23, that the situation was well enough in hand that we could repeal the emergency declaration and stay the related measures that had been introduced.

The measures that were exercised were specifically designed to address a particular situation. They provided authorities with the additional tools they needed to cope with the emergency. Those tools also deterred individuals from engaging in other unlawful activities.

Let me summarize these specific and temporary measures. We temporarily prohibited participation in a public assembly that could reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace and went beyond lawful protest. Police were temporarily able to secure places designated as protected, including Parliament Hill, critical infrastructure like airports, hospitals and international border crossings. Police were temporarily given the ability to compel individuals and companies to provide the essential goods and services needed for the removal, towing and storage of any vehicles, equipment, structure or other objects that were part of this blockade, with reasonable compensation. Police were also to temporarily refuse people travelling to the illegal protest with the intention of participating.

In addition, there were measures to temporarily prohibit bringing a minor to participate in such an assembly or entering Canada with the intent to participate in such an assembly, and to temporarily prohibit supporting an illegal assembly, giving the police the authority to enforce the prohibition by, for example, turning away people who were bringing in food, blankets and shelter materials to an area of an unlawful assembly.

All of these temporary measures ended when we revoked the declaration of a public order emergency on February 23, 2022. They were in force for nine days.

In my capacity as Minister of Justice, I take seriously my responsibility to ensure that every government measure is consistent with the Constitution, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That includes all measures exercised under the Emergencies Act. The act itself provides that all temporary measures taken thereunder shall be subject to the charter, the Canadian Declaration of Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

I must emphasize that point because I believe it can cause some confusion. The measures employed under the Emergencies Act were screened for any incompatibility with the charter. It is the government's view that the measures taken were consistent with that instrument. No individual rights or freedoms were suspended. Charter rights and freedoms continued to be protected as the government took the necessary measures, lawful measures proportional to the situation, to address the unlawful protests and blockades.

To be clear, we will always protect and defend the rights of Canadians to peaceful assembly and to express their views freely, but the blockades and occupation of downtown Ottawa were not peaceful assembly. The protests and blockades that we witnessed in February were illegal, intimidating, harassing and a threat to Canada's security.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Minister, you're speaking time is up.

Can you conclude your marks in a few seconds?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

That's fine. I'm ready to answer your questions.

Thank you very much.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Thank you, Minister.

We now begin the first round of questions.

Mr. Brock, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good evening, Minister Lametti. It's a pleasure to have you present today. Thank you for that.

I'm going to start off by looking at some of the earlier events that took place before the invocation of the act. We know that the convoy itself declared a bunch of demands, and that was shared on social media quite extensively. They wanted to end all vaccine passports, including all inter-Canadian passports. They wanted to eliminate all programs of vaccination and contact tracing. They wanted the rights of those who are vaccine-free to be respected. They wanted divisive rhetoric attacking Canadians who disagree with the government mandates to stop at once and to end all censorship of those with opinions contrary to the government.

There is nothing in those public demands that would cause any federal government to have any concerns, because that is an expression of opinion as enshrined and protected by the charter, yes or no?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Brock.

Indeed, there are statements that are protected by the charter. What we're looking at here, though, were the actions that were taken, and that's what we focused—

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

I'm not talking about actions, Minister.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

No, we can't distinguish this—

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Minister, you can distinguish that. I gave you a set of principles that the convoy protest indicated in their social media.

My question is pointed. What I repeated to you is constitutionally protected under the charter, yes or no?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

If they had stuck to those principles, we wouldn't be here.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

I'm not asking that. Is it a yes or a no, sir?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

They are constitutionally protected principles, but the actions were not.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Thank you.

Now let's talk about the memorandum of understanding, or the manifesto. Is it your opinion today, as shared by the Prime Minister, as shared by other senior minister officials, that the manifesto itself called out for a violent overthrow of the Canadian government. Is that your understanding?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

The manifesto was one indicator of the reasons we took into consideration, as we have tabled in the House of Commons. It was one factor that indicated, amongst many other factors, including many actions, that forced us to take the measure that we did.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

I'm not talking about other factors. I'm talking about the manifesto.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

You can't distinguish them, Mr. Brock.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

I can, because it's my question for you, Minister. The question is very simple. The manifesto itself, did you interpret that as a violent overthrow of the Canadian government?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

I read the manifesto for the words that it contained, and as we did across the government, it was a factor that we considered amongst many other factors and many other actions—

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

I'll ask the question again, Minister.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

—in whether or not to invoke the Emergencies Act.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Did you interpret that as a violent overthrow of the Canadian government?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Monsieur Fortin, could the minister be allowed to answer the question?

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

He's not answering the question. That's the problem.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

I have to interrupt, Mr. Brock, because Mr. Virani has a point of order.