Monday, Feb. 14 marked a sad day in Canadian history, because government has become increasingly reactionary instead of proactive. A mari usque ad mare. This isn’t just about Ottawa and our prime minister. This is an issue dogging the country from sea to sea.
As a background, the Emergencies Act of 1988 is NOT the War Measures Act in so much as it has parliamentary oversight and is still subject to the protections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The War Act did not have oversight, and our Charter was brought into law April 17, 1982. This move by the government is the correct course of action now that the horse has escaped the proverbial barn, and hopefully will be used sparingly with real enforcement coming through non-violent uses such as empowering the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada to better weed out foreign actors.
How did we get here? How did the barn door get opened? Government inaction.
Forecasters: There’s a storm coming.
Government: (deafening silence).
Populace: The storm has arrived.
Government: (Crickets chirping).
Populace: We are self evacuating from the ravaging floods.
Government: We’ll look into that. Let’s strike up a committee.
Populace: Our flocks are drowning.
Forecasters: That was the storm of the century.
Populace: No shit, Sherlock.
Government: We have determined there may have been a storm.
Municipal, provincial and federal governments had the foreknowledge that protesters were heading to Ottawa. The convoy headed east was carried on the evening news. What did anyone in elected power do? Nothing. This whole thing may have easily been met with an early resolution if government leadership stepped out in front and met with the organizers tête-à-tête. Instead, our leaders hid behind their palace doors throwing local police forces under the bus while letting the mob rule and harass our citizens.
Please have your opinions for or against this protest. Discourse is great. We are lucky to have that right. But please also take time to reflect on how this might have been resolved without our country invoking something as drastic as this.
Proactive. Not reactive.
