Declaration of Emergency Committee on April 26th, 2022

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

There's no unanimous support for your proposal, Ms. Bendayan.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

That's not a problem.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Then we will give everyone one minute. I understand that we should find another arrangement for other occasions, but I unfortunately can't invent one.

Mr. Brock, you have the floor for one minute.

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

Minister, I have one question in four parts.

You chose Justice Rouleau to head the so-called “independent inquiry”. I know the justice through my formal legal circles. I also know he was a senior Liberal PMO staffer before he went to the bench.

Was his Liberal pedigree essential to his selection or merely a bonus? Can you help us understand how you came to choose Justice Rouleau?

How many justices were consulted before you chose Justice Rouleau and how many declined that opportunity?

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

The process, in my understanding, was undertaken by the Privy Council Office.

Let me just say that judges of whatever political stripe who are appointed—plenty were appointed by Conservatives and plenty have been appointed by Liberals—do their jobs to the best of their abilities in a neutral fashion. We have an outstanding judiciary in Canada. I'm proud that Justice Rouleau is taking part in this. I'd be proud for a number of justices to take part, whoever—

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

The time is over.

Thank you, Minister and Mr. Brock.

Ms. Bendayan now has the floor for one minute.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you, Minister.

Given the short amount of time, I'll go very quickly. We've been discussing the charter at length. I would like to bring you to section 7 of the charter and the importance of our right to liberty as Canadians.

I would like to put to you that it was necessary in order to protect the freedom of Canadians and the liberty of Canadians to move about freely within the city of Ottawa, to move about freely and attend their place of work in Coutts, Alberta; Emerson, Manitoba; Surrey, British Columbia; and elsewhere right across the country.

Was the Emergencies Act necessary in order to protect those Canadians' charter rights?

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

Absolutely, yes.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you.

Minister, I would also like to take you to the point of restraint, which you mentioned earlier. I understand that we did not designate additional places under the Emergencies Act, but it is true that we did have to designate the War Memorial due to the desecration, where men and women actually urinated on the War Memorial.

Was it necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act in order to protect the War Memorial?

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

Sadly, yes. It's a matter of public record.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Minister, to clarify for the record, is it your opinion as Attorney General and Minister of Justice that the test was met to invoke the Emergencies Act as outlined?

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Thank you, Ms. Bendayan. Your time is up.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you, Minister.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Thank you.

It's now my time to speak. I therefore ask Mr. Green to take over the chair.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

The floor is yours.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Minister, consultations took place, and a report was prepared and appended to the proclamation. You told me earlier that such consultations could have been held before or after the Emergencies Act was invoked. However, subsection 25(1) of the act clearly states that, in a case such as the one before us, consultations must take place before emergency measures are exercised.

However, you mentioned that you had conducted other consultations. You consult the provinces on a permanent basis. With regard to the situation we're discussing, on what date did you start consulting the premiers and attorneys general of the provinces?

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

The report on the consultations was tabled in Parliament. As you saw…

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

You're referring to the appendix, aren't you

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

…I spoke to my counterpart in Quebec City on the evening of the Emergencies Act proclamation. We conduct consultations across Canada…

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

My time is up, Minister.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Thank you, Mr. Fortin. You have the floor back.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Mr. Green, you have the floor for one minute.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Thank you very much.

We've heard around the table that the authorities were insufficient for local police and provincial police across the country to be able to adequately deal with that, yet there's been open-source evidence that it wasn't necessarily insufficient authorities, but authorities that were insufficient.

My question to the honourable member is whether he believes that, if the police had simply acted with the authority that they had already been granted—i.e. taking early advice from ITAC—understood the information that was given to them as it related to a national security threat and acted in accordance with that information, we could have avoided this situation to begin with.

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

As a legislator, as a member of Parliament and as the Attorney General, I was part of a group that had to deal with facts on the ground. I'm not going to speculate on what police might or might not have done.

My role, given the facts on the ground, was to try to give—

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

The facts on the ground were that the police failed to act within the city of Ottawa for three weeks.