{"id":79308,"date":"2023-01-16T03:00:59","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=79308"},"modified":"2023-01-15T10:06:28","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T15:06:28","slug":"the-commission-has-no-power-to-find-liability-its-report-will-not-bind-the-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2023\/01\/16\/the-commission-has-no-power-to-find-liability-its-report-will-not-bind-the-government\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Commission has no power to find liability. Its report will not bind the government&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thankyoutruckers.substack.com\/p\/law-professor-doesnt-mince-words\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donna Laframboise<\/a> continues to cover the <em>Emergencies Act<\/em> inquiry submissions, including one from Queen&#8217;s University law professor Bruce Pardy:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_71720\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Parliament-Hill-during-protest-Freedom-Convoy-2022.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-71720\" style=\"float:right; padding: 0px 0px 10px 25px\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Parliament-Hill-during-protest-Freedom-Convoy-2022-480x292.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"292\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-71720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Parliament-Hill-during-protest-Freedom-Convoy-2022-480x292.png 480w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Parliament-Hill-during-protest-Freedom-Convoy-2022-853x520.png 853w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Parliament-Hill-during-protest-Freedom-Convoy-2022-150x91.png 150w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Parliament-Hill-during-protest-Freedom-Convoy-2022-768x468.png 768w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Parliament-Hill-during-protest-Freedom-Convoy-2022.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-71720\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot from a YouTube video showing the protest in front of Parliament in Ottawa on 30 January, 2022.<br \/>Photo via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p>Shortly after the <em>Emergencies Act<\/em> commission finished listening to witnesses, he authored a grim <a href=\"https:\/\/torontosun.com\/opinion\/columnists\/pardy-invoking-the-emergencies-act-was-clear-overreach\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">opinion piece<\/a> in the <em>Toronto Sun<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>His expectations are exceedingly low. In his words, the commission&#8217;s<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><em>mandate is not to rule on the legality of the government&#8217;s actions but to inquire into &#8220;the circumstances that led to the declaration being issued and the measures taken for dealing with the emergency&#8221;. The Commission has no power to find liability. Its report will not bind the government. <strong>The Commission is ritual, and the purpose of ritual is performance not outcome \u2013 to make it appear that there is accountability without having to provide it.<\/strong> [bold added]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let us hope he&#8217;s mistaken, and that Commissioner Paul Rouleau has a pleasant surprise in store for us. Whatever happens, Pardy&#8217;s article provides a useful history lesson. It describes the series of events that prompted the use of similar legislation the last time around:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><em>Between 1963 and 1970, the <strong>Front de lib\u00e9ration du Qu\u00e9bec<\/strong> (FLQ) committed hundreds of bombings and several robberies, killing six people, including Quebec deputy premier Pierre Laporte. In response, Pierre Trudeau&#8217;s government invoked the War Measures Act.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Six murders<\/em> &#8211; including the politically motivated kidnapping and execution of a deputy premier. Seven years of violence. <em>Hundreds<\/em> of bombings. Compare and contrast to the three-week festive, bouncy-castle, hot-tub trucker protest in which not a single person was robbed, bombed, or murdered.<\/p>\n<p>Times sure have changed. Today, the same Canadian federal government that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/how-ideology-is-becoming-ever-more-entrenched-in-canadian-government-lingo_4949533.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">talks constantly<\/a> about equity, diversity, and inclusion failed to do a single thing to make the protesting truckers feel as though their concerns, perspectives, or lives mattered. <em>Diversity<\/em> is something the government preaches, but doesn&#8217;t practice. Disagree with the Prime Minister and you&#8217;re a fringe minority with unacceptable views. <em>Inclusion<\/em> is a fancy word that makes politicians feel good about themselves, but it isn&#8217;t a principle that informs their actual behavour. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donna Laframboise continues to cover the Emergencies Act inquiry submissions, including one from Queen&#8217;s University law professor Bruce Pardy: Shortly after the Emergencies Act commission finished listening to witnesses, he authored a grim opinion piece in the Toronto Sun. His expectations are exceedingly low. In his words, the commission&#8217;s mandate is not to rule on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,84,9,10,28],"tags":[311,263,1458,522,720,113,257],"class_list":["post-79308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-government","category-law","category-liberty","category-media","tag-1960s","tag-1970s","tag-freedomconvoy2022","tag-ottawa","tag-protest","tag-quebec","tag-terrorism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-kDa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79308"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79310,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79308\/revisions\/79310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}