Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation.
As elected officials, our most important responsibility is to protect our citizens and keep them safe. In the past three weeks in Ottawa, I have heard first-hand the many unacceptable, dangerous and threatening situations that the people of Ottawa have faced as a result of illegal blockades and occupation in our city. This includes threatening public safety through intimidation, harassment, racial and homophobic slurs, physical assault, sexual harassment, vandalism, openly displaying symbols of hate, such as the Confederate flag that I saw with my own eyes, and incessant noise, which is impacting particularly the most vulnerable. Imagine children with autism or seniors with dementia having to hear the honking constantly, all night.
There is also the blocking of ambulances, preventing people from being able to go to medical appointments or pick up prescriptions, forcing the children's hospital to take on extra security, and desecrating our national monuments, including the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Businesses, schools, and vaccine clinics are closed. People are losing paycheques. People are driving trucks around elementary schools and in neighbourhoods, while swearing at and terrorizing little children. They are blocking the road to the airport. Trucks with large containers of fuel and other flammable materials are near open campfires and fireworks, not to mention what is happening at our borders and elsewhere in the country, including the cache of weapons that was found at Coutts.
I have heard from constituents who have expressed their frustration about a lack of enforcement of the rule of law. Many are leaving Centretown to stay with family and friends elsewhere, or even leaving the city. The people of Ottawa have been appealing to the federal government to step in and restore order. That is why I am very relieved that we are invoking the Emergencies Act. I have constituents who are writing to me, such as Judy, who is a senior. She wrote, “I am so glad the government enacted the Emergency Measures Act. It is the right thing to do, and I will sleep better tonight.”
This is not something that is done lightly. The Prime Minister was clear that this is a temporary, proportionate, geographically specific and scalable measure to restore law and order. It does not in any way limit the Charter of Rights, and it is subject to parliamentary oversight as evidenced by this very debate.
It is about providing certain tools that will put an end to the abusive, hateful and illegal occupation of our city and other critical infrastructure, while guaranteeing that freedom of expression and political dialogue can occur in a respectful and peaceful way.
These tools include the following measures: freezing the accounts and suspending the insurance of trucks used in these blockades; compelling tow truck drivers to comply with requests from law enforcement; requiring all crowdfunding platforms to register with FINTRAC; seizing bank accounts and prohibiting foreign funding of blockades; authorizing the CBSA to stop foreigners who plan to cross the border to join an illegal protest; increasing the powers of police to enforce the law, impose fines and jail offenders; designating, securing and protecting critical sites and infrastructure to ensure the provision of essential services; and prohibiting the use of property to support illegal blockades.
The rule of law is a fundamental precondition to living in a free and democratic society. What we have been seeing in our city, and across the country, includes some very organized groups with significant foreign funding whose stated aim is the overthrow of our government. It calls for harm to come to elected officials. Groups with links to far-right extremists, who are unleashing hatred with violent rhetoric and conspiracy theories, are actually deputizing themselves to be able to arrest other citizens. This is an attack on our democracy and institutions of governance. I fully support the use of the Emergencies Act under these circumstances.
I want to be clear that I come to this conclusion very reluctantly. I was on the board of the Alberta civil liberties association in grad school. I did my doctoral studies in Canadian constitutional history, and I have spent most of my career on human rights and democracy promotion. I have lived and worked in parts of the world where I have put my own safety at risk to fight for the rights to free speech, democratic accountability and rule of law.
I would do no less for our same rights as Canadians. I just never thought that I would actually have to. Freedom of speech is not the same as freedom to drown out other people's voices. It does not give people the right to break the law. The convoy and occupation of our downtown forced many other people to cancel their events because of security, including the vigil for the anniversary of the Quebec City mosque attack.
Freedom of speech does not include throwing excrement at a young woman on her way to work or threatening others with sexual assault or bodily harm just because they are wearing a mask. It does not include making obscene gestures at six-year-olds on a school trip, throwing objects at journalists or flooding 911 lines. It does not include blocking health care workers so they cannot get to the hospitals where they can save lives. It certainly does not include arson or pushing into a residential apartment building and barricading the exits with handcuffs.
Freedom of speech does not mean taking away the rights of others to live in safety. I have worked in countries where force determined whose voices were heard, where the law was flouted with impunity, where might made right. That is not freedom and that is not democracy.
What the Emergencies Act is doing is making sure that this lawlessness does not take hold or grow roots in our country. It is giving powers to law enforcement to make sure nobody is above the law. It is legal. It is constitutional. It is temporary and it does not override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is only being used in proportion to the existing threat, and it is subject to parliamentary oversight as well as an inquiry after the fact.
I would like to quote from Alex Neve, the former head of Amnesty International Canada:
This is not a matter of giving up on human rights by shutting down a protest. Quite the contrary, this is a matter of upholding human rights by ending an occupation that is a source of fear, menace, hardship and harm.
Another issue that I would like to discuss this evening is the taking away of people's livelihoods.
I also know that many of my constituents have had to close their businesses or have lost work hours and paycheques because of the blockades. The Minister of Finance has announced that there will be compensation for businesses and employees who lost income because of this.
I have also heard from many constituents who have sympathy toward the stated aim of the protests regarding ending vaccine mandates. I encouraged them to continue to share their concerns with me in that regard. However, the decision to lift public health measures or to strengthen them must be one taken by elected officials based on advice from public health experts, not based on pressure and threats by people in the streets.
I know that the past two years have been very hard. Some of us have lost loved ones to or because of COVID. Many of us have family members who struggle with mental health or addictions aggravated by isolation and the closing of schools and workplaces. Many of us have parents or grandparents we have not been able to see in order to keep them safe, but we have done our part and we know that it will not last forever. Vaccines have saved tens of thousands of Canadian lives and already we are seeing optimistic signs.
I would also like to emphasize that I understand that not everyone participating in protests was in agreement with the harassment, threats, hatred and extreme language and objectives expressed by many of the leaders and participants. If so, it is well past time to leave the protest and go home. It is no longer peaceful nor legal in its tactics and aims. There are other forums to express views responsibly.
I also think that Canadians need to start talking to each other again. This is already causing rifts within families and friendships. We need to start being decent to each other again, to really hear each other, but we must also make sure that we do that respectfully and without violence. Going into the streets and causing harm to others is not the way the be heard. Threatening people and taking away their safety and livelihoods is not democratic dialogue. Breaking the law is not okay.
I wish that the Emergencies Act were not necessary, but in a democratic society we must stand up against illiberal forces that would deny other people's rights to safety, security and free expression.