AT YOUR SERVICE: MPs debate how feds chose to halt trucker convoy

Langley Advance Times runs a new weekly feature, call it “At Your Service.”

It’s another forum in which to put questions to our local politicians about key issues facing our community and its residents.

Using a basic question-and-answer format, elected officials will be asked one question at a time and given the opportunity to respond (to a maximum of 250 words) on that said issue.

Alternating between elected groups, Langley City and Langley Township councils, Langley school board, Langley MLAs, and Langley MPs each have a chance to participate.

The answers provided will be published in their entirety online each Sunday.

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RECENT – AT YOUR SERVICE: Federal clean energy efforts lauded by MP

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QUESTION

Both Langley MPs were asked the same question: Should the government revamp the Emergencies Act in the wake of the Ottawa convoy occupation?

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ANSWERS

MP John Aldag

A. Earlier this year, illegal blockades caused havoc in our capital and across Canada – including here in the Lower Mainland.

In Ottawa, residents felt unsafe in their own neighbourhoods. Extremely loud honking was heard, 24/7.

Elected officials were threatened.

People were out of work when businesses closed and children – including young cancer patients – couldn’t get treatment. Symbols of hate were displayed, while white supremacist rhetoric was amplified by convoy organizers.

Across the country, blockades hurt Canadians.

Closed borders forced plants to close and workers to be laid off in Ontario, while ranchers in Alberta couldn’t get cattle to market.

Only minutes from our community, the Pacific Highway Border Crossing was blocked. This severed B.C.’s most important link to the United States and meant that toddlers at the Creative Kids Learning Centre – just trying to nap or play – faced non-stop honking and screaming.

With the impact mounting, we invoked the Emergencies Act to restore public safety.

Blockades in Ottawa were cleared without any serious injuries and crossings reopened.

Significantly, an attempt to re-block the Pacific Highway was thwarted using tools from the Act.

A public inquiry is underway, and we look forward to seeing its conclusions. We invoked the Emergencies Act to keep Canadians safe – and it worked.

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MP Tako van Popta

A. The Government of Canada does not need to revamp the Emergencies Act, it needs to respect it.

On Feb. 14, 2022, in response to protestors setting up camp in downtown Ottawa, the Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in over 50 years.

In 1970 it was invoked in response to the October Crisis, when two people had been kidnapped – one later found murdered – and the Front de liberation du Quebec threatened more havoc if their demands for a free Quebec were not met.

The trucker convoy of 2022, on the other hand, was a disparate group of individuals whose common goal was that the government should lift COVID-related vaccine and travel mandates.

Law enforcement and legal experts, including CSIS and the RCMP, testified at the public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act that there was no threat to the “security of Canada” as defined in the law, and that police had not yet exhausted their resources.

Despite that, the government chose to follow a broader understanding of a threat to the security of Canada and invoked the Act anyway.

Simply put, this government wishes to adapt laws to suit its objectives – to rationalize their actions for political purposes.

What protection do Canadians’ rights and freedoms have if we allow any government, present or future, to avoid accountability by changing the rules?

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UP NEXT

Next week’s Langley Township councillors are being asked: What is the city doing to stay within budget given high inflation and rising interest rates?.

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Watch for their answers online Sunday.

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