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

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

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 which tools he was refer‐ ring to and his office provided no official comment when asked for clarification.

In the past, the Conserva‐ tive leader has 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 consecutive, 25-year blocks of parole ineligibility to of‐ fenders who commit multiple 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 on mandatory 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 themselves on whether they think my laws are constitu‐ tional," 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, Sec‐ tion 33 is the only option gov‐ ernments have to circumvent the ruling.

No federal government has used the clause - but a number of provincial govern‐ ments have. Quebec invoked the clause to pass a language reform law that limits the use of English in the public ser‐ vice. Ontario also used it to pass back-to-work legislation 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."

WATCH | Poilievre using notwithstanding clause would be 'traumatic': con‐ stitutional lawyer

Asked about Poilievre's comments, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May ac‐ cused Poilievre of "sloganeer‐ ing untethered from princi‐ ple."

"I'm deeply disturbed that

Mr. Poilievre would think it's acceptable to suggest the federal government would use the notwithstanding clause to bulldoze through not just our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but centuries of adherence to the principle that anyone in our criminal justice system is innocent un‐ til proven guilty," she told an unrelated news conference on Tuesday.

"He wants to take a wreck‐ ing ball to the foundational principles of our civilization."