Police don’t need special powers
Competent dismantling of blockades preferred to govt’s heavy hand
More than 51 years ago, I stood outside the Federal Building in Regina with a small coterie of radicals to protest the imposition of the War Measures Act. Part of my concern was with the elimination of civil liberties to bring the terrorist FLQ to heel. Another part was my disgust with the vindictiveness of Pierre Trudeau, the prime minister of the day, against his long-time foes, Quebec nationalists.
The percentage of Canadians who opposed implementation of the War Measures Act could be measured in single digits. The public in Canada and Quebec overwhelmingly supported the elder Trudeau’s crackdown.
It was without question an emergency. The FLQ had kidnapped the British trade commissioner and a Quebec cabinet minister and demanded the release of “political prisoners.” Over the preceding seven years had planted about 200 bombs which exploded everything from mailboxes to the outside of the Montreal Stock Exchange. They had robbed banks and tried unsuccessfully to kidnap other so-called colonial oppressors.
The impact of the War Measures Act was both immediate and long-term. The cabinet minister, Pierre Laporte, was murdered within hours. Almost 500 people – artists, poets, union leaders, journalists – were arrested in the middle of the night and detained for varying lengths of time. Most of the arrests were unwarranted and had no link with Trudeau’s supposed “apprehended insurrection.”
When the October Crisis ended with the release of the British trade commissioner at the end of December, the FLQ was on its last legs. The terrorist movement disappeared and has not been seen since. One point for Pierre.
However, the over-reaction of the War Measures Act had lasting consequences. Over time, it transformed a vicious, but small minority into a peaceful, law-abiding political force which nearly took Quebec out of Canada. The nascent Parti Quebecois had won seven seats in the 1970 provincial election. Within a few years, it became the dominant political party in Quebec, taking power in 1976 with an overwhelming majority.
Since then, the PQ has been in and out of power but has not had a majority government since 2003. Despite the party’s eclipse, nationalism has been burned into the Quebec soul. The declaration of the War Measures Act in 1970 had a significant effect in strengthening Quebec nationalism.
Over the years, my opposition to the War Measures Act has not wavered, although my opinion of nationalism has changed. I now believe that nationalism gives rise to bigotry and bitter polarization, and not just in Quebec. Often nationalism is a response to the exploitation of voiceless people. But once it gets the upper hand in a country or region, its history of resentment can lead the once oppressed to become the new oppressors.
Solidarity needs to be extended beyond the limits of one’s ethnic or racial group to include everyone. Perhaps this is idealistic, but it’s an ideal toward which the world should strive.
All the above is a long-winded introduction to the point of this post – that if implementation of the War Measures Act was unjustified in 1970, the use of the Emergency Powers Act is even less justified in 2022.
I don’t agree with the tactics of the blockaders to extort legislative changes out of the federal government. I don’t agree that vaccine mandates are an unwarranted limitation on personal freedom. And I believe that the anti-vaxxers are self-centred with their refusal to receive a vaccine proven to reduce the incidence of Covid. They should stop causing chaos and contribute to the nation they claim to love.
But the problem is not that police lacked the powers required to shut down the blockades, but that they have not used those powers. The police operation has been historically incompetent, not recognizing the threat the convoy represented when it was on the way to Ottawa and then being clueless in how to deal with it once blockades were established.
The only possible value of the Emergency Powers Act may be to track down the financiers who seek to destroy the peace, order and good government of our country. Even there, I am unsure as to whether special powers are required.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, has followed in his father’s footsteps by sowing division when he should be an agent of unity. Although the blockades are (finally) being shut down, I fear that Trudeau the Younger may have given momentum to a dangerous movement just as his dad did half a century ago.
While most protesters are peace-loving people, the prime minister’s inaction followed by his over-reaction may put wind in the sails of people who treat freedom as a god. Rather freedom is a right which should be used to strengthen the common good. Freedom comes with responsibility to your fellow humans. The protesters fail to recognize that. In time, they may create a form of anarchy unique to the 21st century.
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"Freedom comes with responsibility to your fellow humans." Glen, you are so right. I'd go so far as to say that freedom cannot exist without responsibility. "Freedom" without responsibility is the very definition of anarchy.