Ottawa says it needs more time before updating controversial Emergencies Act

More than a year after a federal inquiry set up to re‐ view the government's divi‐ sive decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in early 2022 recommended updat‐ ing the legislation, the fed‐ eral government says it needs more time before moving ahead.

"We need more time be‐ cause it's complicated," Pub‐ lic Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters Wednesday.

"Changing the Emergen‐ cies Act necessarily has an impact in terms of the rela‐ tionship between Canada and provinces and territo‐ ries."

The minister held a news conference to give an update on the government's progress to Commissioner Paul Rouleau's report.

As required by law, Rouleau's inquiry examined the government's decision to use the Emergencies Act to declare a public order emer‐ gency and clear the convoy protests that barricaded the streets around Parliament and blocked international border crossings.

Rouleau ultimately deter‐ mined that the federal gov‐ ernment had met the threshold needed to invoke the never-before-used legis‐ lation, but suggested the volatile situation could have been avoided had it not been for "a series of policing fail‐ ures."

His report made 56 rec‐ ommendations to improve intelligence sharing, police response to wide-scale protests and the Emergen‐ cies Act itself.

Under the Emergencies Act, a national emergency only exists if the situation "cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada." Further, a public or‐ der emergency can be de‐ clared only in response to "an emergency that arises from threats to the security of Canada that are so serious as to be a national emergency."

In his final report, Rouleau argued that the definition of "threats to the security of

Canada" in the CSIS Act should be removed from the Emergencies Act as it acts as a source of controversy and misunderstanding.

Federal Court came to a different decision

The government pointed to its ongoing appeal of a sepa‐ rate Federal Court decision, which issued a starkly differ‐ ent opinion on the govern‐ ment's use of the Emergen‐ cies Act.

Earlier this year, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act was un‐ reasonable and infringed on protesters' Charter rights.

The federal government has since filed an appeal of that decision, arguing the court applied the reasonable‐ ness standard "in an incor‐ rect manner" and that it adopted an "overly narrow articulation" of the Charter of Rights.

"There is ongoing litiga‐ tion on this issue and the Government will carefully consider those decisions, along with other factors, with a view to assessing whether any amendments to the Emergencies Act are neces‐ sary," read the government's formal response to Rouleau's recommendations.

LeBlanc also suggested updates to the Emergencies Act would be done as part of a suite of national security changes that are coming down the pipeline.

"When the CSIS Act was prepared there was no iPhone," he said.

"We are prepared to look at the definition as contained in the Emergencies Act that references the CSIS Act," he said, adding there will be a "thoughtful discussion" around modernizing national security legislation in the coming months.