Evidence of meeting #5 for Declaration of Emergency in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was question.
A video is available from Parliament.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
So, as you interpret it, the act grants search and seizure powers.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
We aren't reading the same act.
Apart from…
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
There were no seizures. Mr. Carignan, we mustn't mislead people.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
What other powers did the Emergencies Act grant you apart from the authority to cut off people's access to their sources of income and to find tow trucks to remove vehicles? It's quite incredible that the act enabled you to find trucks, whereas you were previously unable to do so.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
First of all, we designated areas where the situation was critical, such as certain bridges, certain infrastructure and Parliament, so we could prohibit the illegal activities, the illegal protests, in those places. We granted powers…
Senator Boniface actually asked that question earlier this evening.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
We didn't withdraw any powers from the police services whose jurisdiction it was. Instead we facilitated the RCMP's involvement in police operations.
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Minister.
Senator Boniface now has the floor for three minutes.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Thank you very much.
Minister, thank you for clarifying on the injunction, because I think it's a question that many people asked. I wanted to loop back to it. I think it's better understood both by me and by members of the public who may be watching.
With respect to the tow trucks—because this question has come up, and I know it would have been Minister Mendicino—we are not talking about one tow truck to tow one truck. I don't know the exact number, but I read somewhere that there were 60 to 70 trucks in there at some point.
Liberal
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
They were specialized trucks, which means specialized tow trucks.
I want to be clear, because I don't want it to be perceived that it was on a whim at the request of the police, and I'm assuming the request came from the police.
The second point I want to ask you about is this. When you look at the act now, which was drafted in 1988, do you see that successive governments have missed an opportunity to review the act in a way that would make it less of a blunt instrument or that changes should have been made in the intervening years?
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
Can you ask me that in another couple of years?
I mean that. I do hope the work you do and the work that the independent inquiry will accomplish will help push us towards a reform of the law. To be honest, I'm still too much in the middle of it. I may have some opinions, but I'm not ready to share them yet. I would like to see the fullness of the report come out.
I do believe that we as legislators have an obligation to continue to tweak it and to reform it wholesale if that's what we have to do. The Mulroney reform was wholesale, and it was a good reform from the old War Measures Act to this. There may be tweaking that needs to be done here. I'd rather not comment now. That's for the future, but I think it's a very good question you're asking.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Thank you.
I know the Province of Ontario is moving forward with some legislative change for theirs, and I'm hoping that, at some point, somebody's going to look at the relationship between a provincial order of emergency and this act to determine whether or not we have gaps in between that are left open to interpretation. I think the more we clarify, the better.
Finally, I want to ask you whether you would be agreeable to something. The Canadian Police Association has been visiting various people and suggesting there needs to be a national summit that would bring together key stakeholders to talk about how protests should be policed, how those resources are accessed and how that should be done. I would think that the federal government would find itself in the position to be a good convener of this, given the levels of—
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
Mr. Chair, I'd briefly like to add something.
I don't want to speak for my colleagues, Mendicino and Blair, but I think we would be amenable to that.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Minister.
Thank you, Senator.
We now have 15 minutes left in the period we'd reserved for this evening. I suggest we do what we did earlier with the Minister of Public Safety, which is do a lightning round in which each speaker has one minute in a first round. Is that fine with you? Are there any objections?
Liberal
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Yes, it's quite short, but I find it hard to divide the time otherwise. If you're telling me we should take a minute and 15 seconds, I'm not sure that will work.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
We could do what we agreed on for the second round. It may not be necessary for the four senators to speak again.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
I really like your questions about the army, Mr. Carignan, except that I completely disagree with you.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Time is passing as we speak, and I can't stop it.
Senators, do you agree that only two of you will speak in this round of questions?
Each speaker would have two minutes, but only two senators would speak instead of four.