The federal government has invoked the Emergencies Act. Here's what that means
CBC
As anti-vaccine mandate protesters continue their weeks-long occupation of the nation's capital, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet on Monday triggered the Emergencies Act — a decades-old law that gives sweeping powers to the federal government to establish order during a crisis.
The law — which has never before been invoked — gives the federal government substantial short-term powers to deal with a crisis.
The act grants cabinet — Trudeau and his ministers — the ability to "take special temporary measures that may not be appropriate in normal times" to cope with an emergency and the resulting fallout during an "urgent and critical situation."
The law itself defines an emergency as something that "seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians."
While the federal government still has to respect the terms of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the law gives the federal government a lot of leeway for action. For one thing, it gives the federal cabinet unprecedented power to assume jurisdiction from the provinces and municipalities.
The act has been called "the most powerful federal law" by some experts because it essentially allows the federal government to take matters into its own hands and temporarily supersede other laws that may already be on the books.
The act was passed in 1988 as a replacement for the War Measures Act. It has never been used before because it's widely considered a measure of last resort.
The War Measures Act was deployed during the First and Second World Wars and, most controversially, during the 1970 October Crisis in Quebec.
Before invoking these powers, the federal government must determine that the emergency "exceeds the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it" or that the situation "seriously threatens" the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada.
Trudeau said Monday the cabinet believes the current situation meets those conditions and the federal government has been "forced to act" to bring the situation under control in Ottawa and elsewhere.
WATCH: Trudeau announces he will invoke the Emergencies Act to deal with protest deadlock in Ottawa
Under the law, if an emergency does not extend to the whole of Canada, cabinet must define "the area of Canada to which the effects of the emergency extend."
In this instance, Trudeau said, the Emergencies Act powers will be limited as required to the City of Ottawa and other sites where protesters have erected blockades that disrupt critical infrastructure.
"It will be specific, limited, responsible and reasonable," the prime minister said.
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