Parliamentary Committee Notes: >Public Order Emergency Commission
DEDC – Federal Court Ruling on the Invocation of the Emergencies Act
Date: February 27, 2024
Classification: Unclassified
Branch / Agency: CPB
Issue: On February 17, 2023, the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) released its Final Report, which examined the circumstances that led to the 2022 declaration of a public order emergency under the Emergencies Act and whether invocation was justified.
Background:
- The Emergencies Act (the Act) is an extraordinary piece of federal legislation that grants the federal government temporary additional powers when provincial, territorial, and other federal tools are no longer sufficient to deal effectively with a particular challenge or set of challenges.
- In recognition of the Act’s broad powers, it includes several accountability mechanisms to ensure oversight and transparency when it is invoked, including a mandatory inquiry.
- The POEC was established in April of 2022 as a result of the invocation of the Act to deal with the Winter 2022 illegal demonstrations and blockades. The POEC was directed to investigate and report on the circumstances that led to the declaration of a public order emergency.
- The POEC Final Report was released on February 17, 2023, and found that the Government of Canada met the very high threshold for the invocation of the Act but that this conclusion had been reached with reluctance. The Report noted that the events that transpired over January and February 2022 involved failures of policing and federalism.
Background:
- The POEC Final Report provides 56 recommendations, which fall under the following categories: policing reform (27); intelligence collection and gathering (2); identification and protection of critical trade and transportation corridors (1); modernizing the Act (22); addressing cryptocurrencies and social media misinformation and disinformation; (2) and, follow-up and accountability post-Commission (2).
- Recommendations under the policing reform category focus on enhancing collaboration between law enforcement agencies, improving information sharing, intelligence gathering and distribution practices, clarifying protocols for requesting additional resources, and improving command and control practices during major events.
- Recommendations under the intelligence collection and gathering category are centered around examining whether a federal institution should have the authority and responsibility to monitor and report on information contained in social media for “appropriate purposes and with appropriate safeguards,” and to initiate a review ensuring that federal agencies responsible for the collection or analysis of security intelligence are fully coordinated among themselves.
- The sole recommendation under the identification and protection of critical trade and transportation corridors category calls on the Government to initiate discussions with provincial and territorial governments, as well as consult Indigenous governments and affected municipalities, to identify critical trade transportation corridors and infrastructure, and establish the necessary protocols to protect them and respond to interference with them.
- Recommendations under the Emergencies Act category focus on modernizing the Act, which includes reviewing the threshold for public order emergencies, broadening consultation under the Act, and on how to improve future Commissions of Inquiry.
- Specifically, recommendation 31 of the Final Report recommended the incorporation by reference into the Emergencies Act of the definition of “threats to the security of Canada” from the CSIS Act be removed.
- Recommendations under the addressing cryptocurrencies and social media misinformation and disinformation category calls on the Government to work with its partners to further study the impact of social media, including misinformation and disinformation, while addressing the serious challenges that misinformation, disinformation, and other online harms present to individuals and Canadian society.
- Further, the Commission also recommended that the federal government continue to study cryptocurrencies, with an eye to leverage findings from the report to inform this work.
- Recommendations under the follow-up and accountability post-Commission category calls on the Government to publish a recommendation-by-recommendation government response within one year of the release of the POEC Final Report. Additionally, the Commission recommends that the response be referred to a Parliamentary implementation committee.
- The need for better intergovernmental collaboration to ensure a more synchronized response to events of national significance was a strong theme across the Final Report.
Next steps:
- On August 31, 2023, a 6-month progress report to respond to the final report was published. The Prime Minister has committed to providing a comprehensive government response within a year of the release of the report.
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