Senator Denise Batters gave a riveting speech opposing the invocation of the Emergencies Act during Senate debate on Feb. 22, 2022.
The transcript of Senator Batters’ speech can be read here.
A video of the speech is embedded below:
From the transcript:
“What is the National Emergency this time, dance parties and loud horns? Horns that, by the way, had long since stopped honking by the time this act was invoked, due to a court injunction that the truckers complied with. Honorable Senators, just remember that when this government has long gone, and another takes its place of a strike you may not agree with.
The Trudeau Government has now set this as the precedent for invoking the Emergencies Act: bouncy castles, loud horns, raucous partying and illegal parking in a four block radius of downtown Ottawa. It’s annoying to be sure. But is this a national emergency?
The federal government made no moves to resolve the Ottawa protests for three weeks while the protesters were mere feet from the front door of West Block. If the situation were truly such a grave threat to national security that it rose to the level of employing the Emergencies Act, one would expect the federal government would have acted in some way – any way – to resolve it. But they did not. Prime Minister Trudeau simply refuses to meet with protesters, then brought in the Emergencies Act as a first – not a last resort.
When Deputy Prime Minister Freeland spoke on the issue, she said that the government used all the tools that had prior to the invocation of the act. What tools? Name calling? The Prime Minister disappearing for days on end? More name calling? What tools? The same tools they used for the railway blockades in 2020 that went on for 19 days, and for which the government still never invoked the Emergencies Act?” — Senator Denise Batters
