Poilievre hints to police he would use notwithstanding clause to change justice laws

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he would use "whatever tools the consti‐ tution allows" to pass crim‐ inal justice laws if his party forms the next govern‐ ment.

Speaking to the Canadian Police Association on Mon‐ day, Poilievre promised to implement more stringent requirements for bail and make it harder for convicted murderers to transfer out of maximum security prisons.

"All of my proposals are constitutional," Poilievre said.

"We will make them con‐ stitutional using whatever tools the constitution allows me to use to make them con‐ stitutional. I think you know exactly what I mean."

Poilievre didn't explicitly say what tools he was refer‐ ring to, and his office provided no official comment when asked for clarification.

In the past, the Tory leader said he would use the notwithstanding clause to overturn a 2022 Supreme Court decision that struck down a law that gave judges discretion to hand out con‐ secutive, 25-year blocks of parole ineligibility if an of‐ fender has committed multi‐ ple first-degree murders.

That decision came in the case of Alexandre Bissonette, who killed six people in a Quebec City mosque in 2017. At the time of the ruling, Poilievre said he would use the notwithstanding clause to reinstate that law.

The courts have struck down a number of other criminal laws passed by the Stephen Harper government in recent years - including some laws around manda‐ tory minimum sentences.

The notwithstanding clause, or Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, gives parlia‐ ments in Canada the power to override certain portions of the charter for five-year terms when passing legisla‐ tion.

Once invoked, Section 33 prevents any judicial review of the legislation in question.

"I will be the democratical‐ ly elected prime minister, de‐ mocratically accountable to the people and they can then make the judgments them‐ selves on whether they think my laws are constitutional," Poilievre said in his speech on Monday.

Federal Justice Minister

Arif Virani said Poilievre's comments show he is willing to follow the lead of some premiers who have decided to use, or threaten to use, the notwithstanding clause.

"I think Pierre Poilievre demonstrated very clearly to the Canadian public what his true intentions are with re‐ spect to the notwithstanding clause, and how easily he would use it," Virani told re‐ porters Tuesday, adding that the clause "should be a last option, not a first option."

Errol Mendes, a law pro‐ fessor at the University of Ot‐ tawa, told CBC News that in cases where the Supreme Court has made a ruling, the only option a government would have is using Section 33.

No federal government has used the clause, but a number of provincial govern‐ ments have. Quebec invoked the clause in passing a lan‐ guage reform law that limits the use of English in the pub‐ lic service. Ontario also used it to pass back-to-work legis‐ lation for education workers in 2022.

Mendes cautioned that using the clause at the feder‐ al level would send a signal to provincial governments and could lead to normaliz‐ ing its use.

"Essentially it would be the straw that'll break the camel's back and lead to eventually the denigration of the Charter as a whole," he said.

"It really shows there has not been a thought given to the long-term impact on Canada if we allow this thing to be used so frequently."