On February 21, local time, the Canadian Federal House of Commons passed the federal government's previous decision to apply the Emergencies Act to deal with truck demonstrators calling themselves Freedom Convoy across Canada by blocking transit crossings and besieging important facilities in the capital.
The State of Emergency Act, a non-trivial matter
The Emergency Act was billed by the Brian Mulroney government of Canada in 1987 to pass Bill C-77 in the second year of the Federal House of Commons. The law allows the federal government to "basically natural or man-made disasters like floods or a massive chemical spill; public order disturbances that threaten the security of Canada."; International emergencies that require Canada act effectively in a multinational alliance; war itself "four cases in which possible federal resources and means are used to restore order, but are replaced by its predecessor, the War Measures Act) is different, the Emergency Act does not allow conscription and use of the military, does not suspend the enjoyment of fundamental rights of citizens, does not put executive power above the Constitution, and does not restrict freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. As Canadian Federal Chancellor Justin Trudeau put it, applying the Emergency Act is an extraordinary measure that is "time limited, geographically targeted, reasonable and proportionate."
Extraordinary measures, however, are extraordinary measures, which give the federal government the power to intervene and participate in law enforcement beyond the provincial and municipal levels within the time limit and scope of application, and is very sensitive in Canada, which advocates "three levels of government performing its own duties", which is why the use of the Emergency Act must be authorized by the Federal Prime Minister and need to submit reasons to the Federal Lower House and the Upper House within 7 days, with a majority of the votes of both Houses. Since Canada's federal upper house is essentially symbolic and purely ceremonial, the game of the federal lower house is crucial, and to some extent becomes a vote of confidence in Trudeau and his ruling party (federal liberal party), cabinet.
Canada's largest opposition party, the Federal Conservative Party, generally supports and sympathizes with the "Freedom Motorcade" against anti-epidemic restrictions and vaccine pass policies, and hopes to shake the prestige and ruling position of Trudeau and the ruling party, so under the initiative of the interim party leader Candice Bergen, it was announced early that it would vote against it collectively, and during the vote on the 21st, Bergen even tried to submit a motion against it immediately after the vote failed, but it was shelved due to limited support; another opposition party, The Quebec clique, whose sphere of influence was completely confined to the French-speaking province of Quebec, sided with the Federal Conservative Party and collectively voted against it, a purely "political vote": the party did not oppose the epidemic restriction measures and the vaccine pass policy in principle, but had a psychological shadow over the application of the Emergency Law to the federal government (the Emergency Law was applied for the first time this time, but its predecessor, the War Measures Act, was used once after the war, this time by Trudeau's father, then Federal Prime Minister Pierre. In 1970, Trudeau Pierre Trudeau was used to deal with "Quebec independence" extremist operations in Quebec), thus advocating that "the Emergency Law does not need to be applied, but only through a special mandate to increase the police force and other resources in the provinces and cities in need".
Fortunately, the second largest opposition party, the Federal New Democratic Party, also voted collectively in favor of the political interests. Although the party leader Jagmeet Singh was released on bail, the use of the Emergency Law means that "the leadership of the federal government has failed", and the vote on the 21st also warned "not to abuse the authorization", otherwise the party will withdraw its support at any time, but the support is real after all. This is so because although the "free motorcade" is supported and participated by some union members, and the federal New Democratic Party is based on the major trade unions, the vast majority of trade unions and industrial workers in the country oppose the behavior of "free unions", especially the "free unions" that have previously blocked the Ambassador Bridge, an important U.S.-Canada transit hub connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit in the United States (traffic accounts for 1/4 of the trade volume on the U.S.-Canada border, and the U.S.-Canada entity trade volume accounts for 60-70% of the total Canadian trade). Ambassador Bridge is related to the life and death of the North American auto industry, where union members are gathered, so the auto industry-related unions are strongly opposed to the "free team") is very disgusted, coupled with the new democratic party's firm opposition to former US President Donald Trump and his political ideas, and the "free team" is increasingly showing a close relationship with the "Trump doctrine", which forced the federal new democratic party to reluctantly vote in favor of the "minority ruling" to ensure that the "minority governs" (The formation of a majority government requires at least 170 seats in the lower house of the Federation, but the Federal Liberal Party has only 159 seats, relying on the "non-cabinet support" of the federal New Democratic Party to govern) The Trudeau cabinet can safely break through.
In fact, the Federal Liberal Party is not monolithic: Nathaniel Erskine-Smith from Ontario and Joël Lightbound from Quebec, two backbenchers, both said they had reservations about the application of the Emergency Law, and the reason why they voted in favor was because Trudeau used the party discipline of "collective voting" to ask all party members to vote in coordination. The second is the fear that a failed vote will trigger the dissolution of the federal lower house and another federal election in a short period of time.
The State of Emergency Act is applied because of the "state of emergency"
The Emergency Act was naturally due to the emergence of a "state of emergency" in Canada.
As the COVID-19 pandemic tightens again, in October last year, the Canadian and U.S. governments jointly agreed on quarantine standards for truck drivers crossing the border between the two countries, requiring all drivers to show a vaccination certificate before they can cross the border.
On January 14, Western Separation Movement activist and former fitness coach Tamara Lich spearheaded the "2022 Freedom Convoy" fundraiser on the online fundraising platform GoFundMe, and used opposition to the government's mandatory regulations on transit card drivers as a major rally to call on demonstrators to travel to Ottawa, the first demonstration convoy departing from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, in western British Columbia, arriving in Ottawa (300-400 trucks) on January 29. At most, more than 3,000 trucks gathered in downtown Ottawa.
Initially, the Ottawa municipal authorities and police believed that "demonstrations are not a climate" and wanted to control them in specific and limited areas to avoid serious political consequences caused by drastic means, and the federal and provincial governments did not want to risk "dirty hands" and adopted a "transparent" attitude that allowed them to easily camp in downtown Ottawa for 22 days.
Encouraged by the "success of Ottawa", the asking price of the "free motorcade" quickly spread from the initial "relaxation of the vaccine pass policy, giving the collector a way to live" to oppose almost all epidemic prevention measures, and even "overthrow the Trudeau administration", due to a large number of frustrated US and Canadian far-right populists, Trump supporters tried to "borrow power", "free motorcade" appeared some far-right, xenophobic and populist extreme slogans, some demonstrators smashed shopping malls that required customers to wear masks, and more people continued to honk their horns in downtown Ottawa. Deliberately blocking traffic and discharging a large amount of waste gas and wastewater have gradually caused local citizens to complain.
Under pressure, Canada's three levels of government had to take the risk of turning tough: on February 6, Ottawa City, February 11, on the province of Ontario entered a state of emergency, Trudeau and a number of cabinet officials have successively stated that they "will not give in to compromise", and the desperate "free motorcade" has subsequently blocked the Canada-US border crossing in many provinces and places in Canada, including the "first crossing point" and the Ambassador Bridge, known as the "artery of the Canadian economy", for 7 days, which has backfired, not only accelerating the loss of public opinion support. It also prompted the Federal Government to finally resolve to apply the Emergency Act.
On February 14, the Trudeau administration announced the application of the Emergency Act, the same day that Ontario High Court Judge Faye McWatt issued an injunction prohibiting protesters from illegally setting fires, setting off fireworks, making noise, and letting engines idle; on February 16, police distributed leaflets warning demonstrators to leave downtown Ottawa immediately; police arrested demonstrator Chris Barber (Saskatchewan truck drivers) on February 17; and February 18-19. Police continued to carry out enforcement operations in Ottawa, arresting more than 170 people, including another demonstration organizer, Pat King, using batons and pepper spray. According to Steve Bell, the Ottawa Interim Police Chief, Ottawa's 22-day "truck siege" was "finally over" due to the application of the Emergency Act.
It's just the first victory
However, this is only the first victory.
Although the proportion of Canadians who support "free teams" is not high, and this proportion is declining rapidly as its actions continue and become more extreme, the Angus Reid poll released this week (February 11-13, online survey of 1622 Canadian adults, 2.5 percentage points of error) showed that 72% of Canadian respondents believe the demonstrators should be dissolved, And Ottawa city center restaurant operators to the demonstrators collective claim of 306 million Canadian dollars, including the Canadian Freight Federation (CTA) and many related organizations also clearly oppose the demonstrations, but the epidemic lasted for more than two years, the epidemic prevention measures repeatedly, the society and the public have long been the end of the crossbow, the delay in "returning to normal life" is an objective fact, but also the basis for the existence of the "free motorcade", the country's largest national newspaper "Globe and Mail" recently wrote an article pointing out that "we must face up to both opposition to excessive demonstrations, It also opposes the legitimate demands of those who have taken harsh epidemic prevention measures", such as the Improper Response of the Trudeau Administration, which may "touch the mine" at any time.
As mentioned earlier, opposition parties have different attitudes toward the application of the Emergency Act, not to mention opponents, even supporters have their own thoughts, and out of all ten provinces and three regions, at least the "steppe three provinces" (Albert, Saskatchewan, Manitoba), Quebec and British Columbia, five pro-opposition local party ruling provinces (the "prairie provinces" are the provincial Conservative Party, Quebec is the Quebec Party, and the British Columbia is the provincial New Democratic Party) publicly stated that "this province does not need to apply" Emergency Act". Since the Emergency Act is only valid for 30 days from the date of application (February 14), a new vote will be required, and whether the Trudeau cabinet can completely quell the "free motorcade" movement within 30 days, and if not, whether it can break through the barrier again (the Federal New Democratic Party has said that it will not authorize for so long) will be a severe test.
It should also be noted that the trigger of this incident is the "vaccine pass transit problem" of the card driver, but in fact, there are only a few hundred people in the Canadian card driver who have not been fully vaccinated, the vaccination rate is more than 90%, and the more affected is the American driver, in the process of the "free team" movement, the figure of the American anti-vaccine theorists, Trump support groups, and far-right white supremacists is clearly recognizable, so that the "free team" can be the key support of the "protracted war" - abundant financial resources, from the platform to the funds Most of them come from the United States. The flag-waving and cheering of the us right-wing media, platforms, and the response of U.S. supporters on the other side of the border (Canadian police cannot go to the United States to enforce the law) have made the "free motorcade" operation more effective and influential. Now, in the United States, where Canada's Emergency Law is inexhaustible, supporters of the "Free Motorcade" are trying to launch an "American version" called "People's Convoy", and it remains to be seen whether the two sides of the United States and Canada will form a "seesaw effect", resulting in a resurgence of chaos in Canada.