​On Family Day, Monday, February 21, a vote was held in the House of Commons to “confirm the declaration of a public order emergency proclaimed on February 14, 2022.”

In other words, to confirm PM Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act here in Canada.

I seldom share my personal thoughts, but I will admit to being surprised by this.

Given that the only remaining blockade in Canada was in Ottawa, that had been cleared by police over the previous weekend, I had anticipated the order would be revoked on Monday.

I was wrong.

Not only did the Prime Minister insist on maintaining the Emergency Act, he also made the vote a “confidence vote” meaning if the vote did not pass, the PM would once look to call an election.

Two Liberals MPs, who joined the Conservative and BLOC position that was also backed by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association that the legal threshold to invoke the Emergency Act had not been met, admitted they would have to vote in favor of the motion solely because of the Prime Minister’s threat.

The NDP had already committed support for invoking of the Emergency Act, before the details of what was being proposed by PM Trudeau was tabled in the House. 

Ultimately the motion to invoke the Emergency Act passed with 185 votes in favour and 151 votes opposed, including my own.

Fortunately, two days later, on Wednesday, February the 23rd, the Prime Minister reconsidered and announced that the Emergency Act was being revoked.

I fully support this action by the Prime Minister to revoke these provisions of the Emergencies Act.

With so much attention on the trucker protest in Ottawa, and the debate in the House regarding the Emergency Act, other matters that occurred went largely unnoticed.

One item that was completely overlooked relates to your wireless cell phone bills.

On Wednesday February 9th, in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Trudeau made the following comment:

“We promised Canadian families that we would reduce the cost of their cell phone bill. Today, I am happy to announce that we have met our 25% price reduction target. In fact, we have done so three months ahead of schedule.”

This statement from PM Trudeau relates to his 2019 election promise that your cell phone bills would be reduced by 25% within two years saving the “average Canadian family $1,000” a year.

The leads to my question for this week.

Have your wireless cell phone bills gone down by 25% as Prime Minister Trudeau claims they have?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.

​It was two weeks ago that CBC reported that Canada’s Chief Public Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam stated: “all existing public health policies, including provincial vaccine passports, need to be "re-examined" — because it's clear now that Canada and the rest of the world will be grappling with COVID-19 for months or years to come.” 

Unfortunately, we have yet to see any sort of plan for our path forward from this Trudeau Liberal government.

As a result, earlier this week the official Conservative opposition tabled the following motion:

“That, given that provinces are lifting COVID-19 restrictions and that Dr. Theresa Tam has said that all existing public health measures need to be "re-evaluated" so that we can "get back to some normalcy", the House call on the government to table a plan for the lifting of all federal mandates and restrictions, and to table that plan by February 28, 2022.”

This motion by design did not dictate what that plan should look like only that we should have a plan.

It was a motion that Global News Chief Political Correspondent described as a “very reasonable proposition to the Government”.

Sadly, this Government is not, in my view, in a reasonable mood and opposed this motion. 

Fortunately, the BLOC was in support of this motion leaving the NDP to be the decider.

I regret to inform you that once again the NDP has sided with the Liberals and opposed this motion.

With no plan in place the illegal protests have continued and the tension in Ottawa has increased significantly.

As you may now be aware,  PM Trudeau announced he was invoking the Emergencies Act, which is the replacement for the former War Measures Act.

The War Measures Act was only used once outside of wartime by Pierre Elliott Trudeau at the request of the Quebec Government in 1970.

The replacement Emergencies Act has also never been used until PM Justin Trudeau decided to invoke it this week, despite opposition from many provincial Premiers most notably Quebec.

However, the Premiers of BC and Ontario do support the Emergencies Act being used.

What is the Emergencies Act? 

As the Canadian Civil Liberties Association describes it:

“The Emergencies Act can only be invoked when a situation "seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada" & when the situation "cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada."

The last reference is of particular importance: that “cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.”

As all Canadians will know prior to the Emergency Act being invoked police were able to peacefully clear the Freedom protest that was occurring on the Ambassador Bridge under existing Canadian laws.

In British Columbia we have witnessed the RCMP clearing anti-pipeline and old growth logging protests over the past six months also under existing Canadian laws.

In summary, much as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has also concluded, PM Trudeau has “not met the threshold necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act”.

So how does Prime Minister Trudeau get away with invoking this if the threshold is not met?

The Emergencies Act will need to be confirmed in the House of Commons where it is expected once again the NDP will prop up and support PM Trudeau and his minority Government.

My thoughts? 

Aside from the fact that it is well established that existing Canadian Laws can deal with protests, in reality this is largely an Ottawa problem where the Ottawa police for whatever reason have either been unable or unwilling to deal with. 

Now many Canadians will be subject to the Emergencies Act for what we hope will be a short period of time largely to solve an Ottawa problem.

My question this week:

Do you agree with the decision by PM Justin Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.

​This has been another unusual week here in Ottawa.

The protest of the truckers in the “Freedom Convoy” remains a topic of serious concern here in Ottawa and is one I continue to hear about from local citizens at home as well.

On Tuesday an unusual event occurred when a Liberal MP, Joël Lightbound, a Quebec MP from the riding of Louis-Hébert staged a press conference.

While it not uncommon for MPs to host media events, this one was highly unusual in that MP Lightbound raised some serious concerns of his against PM Trudeau.

Specifically MP Lightbound, as reported by media stated:

 “A decision was made to wedge, to divide and to stigmatize" Canadians over the topic of vaccination and vaccine mandates by PM Trudeau and the Liberal Party.

The Liberal MP stated it was time to “stop these divisive measures” and  “it is time we stopped dividing people, pitting people against each other”.

As CBC reported “people who question existing policies should not be "demonized" by their prime minister.” And "It's becoming harder and harder to know when public health stops and where politics begins,"

Ultimately by his own admission, MP Lightbound is concerned that the Prime Minister continued politicizing of vaccines and vaccine mandates risks undermining public trust in our country's public health institutions.

It is rare for a Liberal MP to publicly call out the actions of the Prime Minister and I would like to commend MP Joel Lightbound for sharing his concerns with Canadians at considerable risk to his own standing within the Liberal caucus.

From my own perspective I think we should all be mindful of the words of Prime Minister Trudeau from two years ago this February, when he said:

“There is always a place for Canadians to protest and express their frustrations, but we need to ensure that we also listen to each other. The reality of populism, and its siren song in our democracies these days, is a desire to listen only to ourselves and to people who agree with us and not to people of another perspective.”

My question this week: do you think it is time for the Prime Minister to follow his own advice or is he right to continue to ignore the concerns of those who oppose policies such as the vaccine mandates?

​I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.

​For the most part, events that are the focus of attention in Ottawa are seldom the same concerns that I hear from citizens locally.

This is why Ottawa is often referred to as “the Ottawa bubble”.

This week all of that changed.
 
The focus of many across Canada has been on Ottawa as the trucker “freedom convoy” has arrived in addition to news mid-week that the Leader of the Official Opposition was also voted out as leader by a Conservative caucus vote.
 
By the time you read this there will likely be a new interim leader of the official opposition that will have been elected by Conservative MP's.
 
As for the “freedom convoy”, it is less clear what will become of this protest movement currently shutting down much of the downtown area around Parliament Hill.
 
During my time in Ottawa, I have been fortunate to sit on both the Government and Opposition sides of the House.

Over that time frame I cannot recall the exact number of different protests that have occurred on the front lawn of the House of Commons, but it is fair to say a great many.
 
It is unfortunate, but not uncommon, that fringe groups with a different message or agenda will also join in on a protest.

Sadly, this has occurred with the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa where some individuals have used the protest as an opportunity to spread hateful messages and symbols. 

Examples include use of Nazi and Confederate flags, disrespect of national moments, and other actions that have no place in Canada.
 
Fortunately, all Parliamentarians have condemned these hateful messages through various channels including some resolutions that passed unanimously in the House of Commons.

That said, there are many peaceful, law abiding citizens, the majority of them professional truck drivers, who have expressed other areas of concern most often not the opposition to vaccination but a mandatory vaccine mandate where one can lose their job if they are not vaccinated.

Other concerns have been raised against the Prime Minister specifically as well his Liberal Government.
 
From my perspective this is also not uncommon.

When I was on the Government side of the House there were often protests against former PM Stephen Harper.

Last year we witnessed protests where rail lines and some highways were shut down in opposition to energy projects.
 
During the protests last year PM Trudeau was quoted by CTV News as saying,

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the disruptions must be resolved through dialogue, not by ordering in the police.”

The PM further added...

“We are not the kind of country where politicians get to tell the police what to do in operational matters,”.

While Prime Minister Trudeau, in the past, has recommended dialogue as a means to resolving peaceful protests, in the case of this current protest, the Prime Minister is refusing to meet with any of them.
 
My question this week:

Do you agree with the Prime Minister’s decision?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.