Madam Speaker, as I have not yet heard anyone explain what was so lacking and so insufficient in the Emergency Measures Act, I wonder if my colleague, who is a long serving member of the justice committee, could enunciate that in some effective way.
What we are doing, in my view, is creating two types of emergencies: an emergency act that would warrant a national type of response; and an emergency, under provisions of this legislation, that would put in place a sort of second tier type of emergency that would be subject to less scrutiny and less judicial intervention. It certainly would delay the time in which Parliament becomes engaged in the process.
Could my colleague tell us why it is that the government has chosen this time to do so, and is it as imminent as it was 14 months ago or is there time now to go through the legislation to make sure we get it right when we are potentially jeopardizing very important civil liberties, which I know my friend would not want to do?