The Emergencies Act 2 sets out the procedures by which public welfare emergencies, public order emergencies, international emergencies and war emergencies are proclaimed, continued and revoked.
It received Royal Assent on 21 July This legislation, based in part on the British Defence of the Realm Act , was adopted to protect national security and to prepare for the conditions of war. The Act, which is no longer in force:. The amendment provided that anything done under the War Measures Act was to be deemed not to be an infringement, abrogation or abridgement of any right or freedom recognized in the Canadian Bill of Rights. It also provided for the laying of a War Measures Act proclamation before Parliament after its issue and for the consideration of its abrogation by both the Senate and the House of Commons.
The Act was in force between 4 August and 10 January , the date of the end of the war with Germany, as declared by Imperial Order-in-Council. The occasion of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in was the cause of the passage of a number of regulations and orders under which membership in certain organizations was proscribed and individuals were interned.
In , the Constitution of Transitional Measures Act was enacted, maintaining certain wartime orders and regulations, and stayed in place until 30 April It was replaced on 1 December by the Public Order Temporary Measures Act , containing many of the same measures adopted earlier under the War Measures Act , which expired on 30 April In May , the Governor in Council adopted an Emergency Planning Order which assigned responsibilities for planning to meet the exigencies of different types of emergencies to various Ministers, and departments and agencies of government.
The Emergencies Act and its companion legislative measure, Bill C, the Emergency Preparedness Act , were intended to create a new legal framework to deal with emergencies. The War Measures Act , criticized for the virtually unlimited powers it conferred on the government, was repealed by Bill C, as it would no longer be needed. The Emergencies Act contains a preamble setting out the broad context within which it is to be applied and interpreted.
The Act:. Although not set out in the Preamble, these rights are:. If the Governor in Council believes, on reasonable grounds, that a public welfare emergency exists in Canada and necessitates the taking of special temporary measures, he or she can, after consulting the Lieutenant Governor in Council of the province or provinces where it is found, so declare by proclamation ss. A public welfare emergency is defined as one that is caused by real or imminent:.
A declaration of public welfare emergency would have to specify:. While a declaration of public welfare emergency is in effect, the Governor in Council would be empowered to make orders and regulations concerning:.
Where the Governor in Council believes that a public order emergency exists in Canada, he or she could, on reasonable grounds, after consultation with the Lieutenant Governor in Council of the province or provinces in question, issue a proclamation declaring this to be the case. If the public order emergency exists in only one province, such a declaration should issue only if the Lieutenant Governor in Council is in agreement ss.
The declaration would have to contain:. A public order emergency is defined as an emergency that arises from threats to the security of Canada as defined in s. The Governor in Council could by order or regulation:. The Governor in Council can declare that an international emergency exists if he or she believes on reasonable grounds that this is so, and had consulted each Lieutenant Governor in Council ss.
An international emergency is defined as being one involving Canada and one or more other countries, arising from intimidation or coercion, the real or imminent use of force or violence, so serious as to be a national emergency s.
From to , for example, certain more limited powers were granted to Cabinet under an offshoot of the legislation called the Emergency Powers Act. This was done only once, during the October Crisis. Laporte was found dead on 17 October. As authorities grappled with the crisis, the FLQ was outlawed and membership in the group became a criminal act. Over the course of the crisis, police conducted more than 3, searches and detained people; were later released without the laying or hearing of charges, and 62 were charged.
The suspension of civil liberties in Quebec was politically controversial. When the crisis was over, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pledged to refine and limit the application of the Act in internal crises. However, by the time the final Trudeau government was defeated in , the Act had not been modified. In the decades following the world wars, Canadians who had been interned and who had their property seized began lobbying for compensation for and recognition of their wartime treatment.
The Japanese Canadian redress movement resulted in an official apology from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on the floor of the House of Commons in It created more limited and specific powers for the government to deal with security emergencies.
Under the Emergencies Act , Cabinet orders and regulations must be reviewed by Parliament , meaning the Cabinet cannot act on its own. The Act outlines how people affected by government actions during emergencies are to be compensated.
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Thanks for contributing to The Canadian Encyclopedia. This led to mass arrests and detentions without charges or trials. Notably, Japanese immigrants became a particular target with the breakout of war on the Pacific front. The final use of the War Measures Act was also highly controversial, not least because it was invoked during peacetime. A few days later on October 10, Pierre Laporte, the Deputy Premier of Quebec was also kidnapped and subsequently killed.
This resulted in the subsequent arrest of hundreds of individuals, from suspected FLQ members, to students, union members, and many others. Perhaps one of the immortal moments of Canadian political history was born from the affair. Unlike its predecessor, the Emergencies Act contemplates a greater degree of parliamentary supervision over a declaration of a state of emergency and the ability for Parliament to revoke or extend any such declaration.
It is also more prescriptive, with four categories of emergency identified:. Significantly, the preamble of the Emergencies Act suggests that any measures are made subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights.
In this respect, the executive will need to consider whether a suspension of civil rights using powers granted under the Emergencies Act would be reasonable and justified in accordance with s. Use of the Emergencies Act is still to be tested and it remains to be seen how any future government will operate within its provisions, and what impact the reference to these human rights instruments which are not operative provisions but are merely included in the preamble will have when measures taken under the Act inevitably become subject to judicial scrutiny.
The modern world faces new threats beyond war and insurrection: there is the ever-pressing danger of climate change, threats from cyberspace, home-grown and international terrorism, and economic depression, all of which may well trigger the need for emergency measures in the future.
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