Liberals plan to rewrite Emergencies Act to make it easier to invoke in the future

There is a need to 'modernize' the Act to address 'violent online rhetoric and financing,' Justice Minister David Lametti told the Public Order Emergency Commission.

Liberals plan to rewrite Emergencies Act to make it easier to invoke in the future
The Canadian Press / Adrian Wyld
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Canadian Justice Minister David Lametti plans to rewrite the Emergencies Act to include policing the internet tools so that invoking martial law will be easier to use during the next inevitable China-spawned pandemic.

The admission was made in his interview with Public Order Emergency Commission lawyers and is found in interview summary documents.

"Minister Lametti identified two areas in which the legislative and policy reform was required. The first was legislative amendments to the EA itself to make it more responsive to pandemics and health emergencies. There is also a need to modernize the language of the Act to address online harms such as violent online rhetoric and financing," said the POEC report summary.

The POEC is the official examination of the use of the Emergencies Act (EA) against peaceful anti-COVID mandate protesters in the nation's capital who were part of the Freedom Convoy in February 2022.

The EA gave authorities extraordinary powers of arrest, warrant-less seizures and the ability to freeze bank accounts of participants, organizers and supporters of the weeks-long trucker-led demonstration against remaining COVID restrictions in Ottawa last year.

Last month, the head of the commission, Justice Paul Rouleau, ruled the government was justified in using the EA against the convoy, explaining the convoy amounted to a national security emergency requiring the suspension of civil liberties to extinguish.

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