Defend Civil Liberties – Enforce Hate Laws

News that the federal government has invoked the Emergencies Act to deal with the continuing occupation of Ottawa by the so-called truckers’ convoy led by far-right and fascist forces, may sound like a good idea to some, but it is a sledgehammer that will suspend the civil and democratic rights of everyone in Canada, effectively imposing martial law across the country. Though the Prime Minister promises to be selective in using the arbitrary powers he has acquired, the Emergency Act effectively suspends the Charter of Rights, eliminating civil and democratic rights in Canada.

The Emergencies Act is the new name for the War Measures Act which has only been used three times in Canadian history, twice during the first and second World Wars, and in 1970 during the occupation of Quebec by federal troops.

The name change was the result of massive opposition to this use of war-time legislation against civilian populations. The legislation should have been abolished. Instead it will be used to do the job in Ottawa that police have already done in Windsor without this draconian legislation.

It has been widely noted, especially by residents of Ottawa, that the Ottawa police have done almost nothing and in many ways have facilitated the ongoing occupation. Police inaction in Ottawa stands in stark contrast to harsh repression against Indigenous peoples whenever Indigenous sovereignty clashes with the capitalist theft of land and resources, or with the mass arrests of thousands that took place during the G20 protests in 2010 or during the Quebec Student Strike in 2012. The numerous connections between police, state intelligence, active and veteran military personnel and the far-right occupation has been widely reported. All this demonstrates that new policing, surveillance and repression powers will ultimately be used against the labour and people’s movements as opposed to the far-right.

What’s missing in Ottawa is the will to politically oppose and act against the far-right core of this movement, to use existing criminal and anti-hate laws to arrest and detain all those advocating hate and threatening violence against women, Muslims, Jews, racialized people, immigrants, Communists, liberals and social democrats, and all those who oppose hate.