OTTAWA — Over weeks of testimony that concluded with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s appearance last week, the Public Order Emergency Commission heard about how downtown Ottawa was occupied last winter by thousands of protesters opposed to COVID-19 public health measures.
Though there no serious violence was reported, residents said their community descended into lawlessness and they felt threatened by harassment and hazards as protesters exercised what they insist was their right to peaceful assembly.
Now the commission, which is tasked with determining whether the federal government was justified in its invocation of the Emergencies Act to clear the protests, must grapple with central questions: Where should the line be drawn on limits to Canadians’ right to freedom of peaceful assembly? And what are governments and courts to do when that freedom conflicts with others’ rights?
The commission launched the policy phase of its inquiry Monday with a roundtable discussion featuring legal experts who study the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Commissioner Paul Rouleau said the question of how to define whether a protest is “peaceful” is a “critical element” of the inquiry’s work.
There’s been very little discussion about the right to peaceful assembly at the Supreme Court of Canada, leaving the reasonable limits on that freedom a bit murky, explained Jamie Cameron, a professor emeritus at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School.
The key question, Cameron said, is: “What is the meaning of peaceful assembly? What does it mean to say that an assembly is peaceful in nature?”
Some experts argue a line should only be drawn if a protest becomes violent, but others believe a protest can become disruptive enough that it can no longer be considered peaceful, she said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 for the first time since it became law in 1988 after thousands of protesters associated with the “Freedom Convoy” blockaded downtown Ottawa and key border crossings, causing weeks of disruptions to Canada’s trade corridors, businesses and residents in those communities.
When the demonstrators arrived in Ottawa, testimony suggested that police believed they would not stay longer than one weekend, despite warnings that demonstrators planned to remain in Ottawa for an extended period of time.
In the end, they entrenched themselves and blocked the streets with encampments and big-rig trucks for three weeks.
“There is a wide degree of consensus on the value of protest in a democratic society,” said Vanessa MacDonnell, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and co-director of the uOttawa Public Law Centre.
“The real challenge for decision-makers is … how do we balance the competing rights and interests that are at stake in the context of a public protest? To me, that’s where the difficult work is.”
The discussion is the first of several that will make up this week’s policy phase of the inquiry, which will be used toward drafting recommendations for how to modernize the Emergencies Act.
The policy phase follows six weeks of public fact-finding hearings at the Library and Archives Canada building in downtown Ottawa, which culminated in Trudeau’s hours-long testimony on Friday.
The Emergencies Act legislation granted extraordinary but time-limited powers to the government, police and banks, including the ability to ban people from participating in assemblies that could reasonably be expected to breach the peace, or travel in an area where such an assembly is happening.
That allowed police to create a no-go zone in downtown Ottawa, and made it a criminal offence to be in those areas without a valid reason.
The regulations may have been overbroad, several experts on the panel agreed, but the context is important, said Carissima Mathen, a law professor at the University of Ottawa.
“On its face, it does look to be overbroad,” Mathen said, but she added that there are time limits on the powers, and there was a list of exemptions to the ban on travelling in certain areas.
“That will factor into whether, in the circumstance, that kind of prohibition is in fact overbroad.”
Much of the testimony over the last six weeks at the inquiry focused on whether the government was legally entitled to invoke the act, given the situation police faced in Ottawa and at border crossings across the country.
Even when the Emergencies Act is invoked, the Charter continues to apply, as explicitly stated in the legislation.
“At the end of the day, much of the concern is that the act is so broad and powerful. But on the other hand it is Charter compliant by its very nature,” Rouleau said.
“You could argue, certainly, the degree of interference with the Charter should be taken into account in the initial determination of what the threshold for an emergency is.”
MacDonnell quipped: “I’m glad I’m not the one making the decision, because there is a tension in there.”
Other topics to be discussed this week include cryptocurrency, international supply chains and criminal law, with discussions largely driven by policy papers the inquiry commissioned earlier this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2022.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
