Thread by @Paulatics

Good morning! The Senate is back in session, for a second full day of debate on Motion 17, the confirmation of the Emergencies Act. Starting a new thread this morning, as ISG senator David Arnot continues the speech he started yesterday. #SenCa #cdnpoli

The occupation of Ottawa, says Sen Arnot was not protected political protest. It was a well organized, well funded attempt to overthrow the government of Canada #SenCa #cdnpoli

Equally concerning, says Sen. Arnot, where the unpredecented border blockades. This extraordinary event required an extraordinary response, he says.

Arnot says he's speaking both as a former Crown prosecutors and former judge, when he says a prosecution like this doesn't turn on a dime. Seditious acts from fringe elements haven't necessarily stopped because the event in Ottawa is over. The risk is not abated. #SenCa #cdnpoli

Arnot, let me add, is one of our very newest senators. He's from Saskatchwan, and in addition to being a lawyer and former judge, he's the former head of Saskatchewan's human rights commission, so he cares about both civil liberties - and hate crimes.

Arnot, who has spent a lot of time working on civics education, talks about the misunderstandings people have about the way government works.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilence, he says. And you can't be vigilent without knowledge. How ironic, he said, that protesters insisted on their First Amendment and Miranda rights, concepts and words they did not understand.

We have fundamentally failed to teach Canadians what it means to be a Canadian citizen, says Sen. Arnot. (This, let it be said, is a long-standing passion project of his - teaching people how our constitution works.)

I think this is Sen. Arnot's second-ever speech in the Senate. And it's a humdinger. He's a former Crown, and this is like a prosecution of our own ignorance.

Up next - Conservative senator Elizabeth Marshall. She's a former auditor-general of Newfoundland and Labrador, and she has a well-deserved reputation as a sharp analytical thinker. Interested to hear what she has to say.

Marshall calls out the failures of police, who did nothing to stop the convoy from taking possession of Parliament Hill. Why did the government wait three weeks before addressing the security threat?

Sen. Marshall asks again why the government didn't do a proper threat assessment to head this off. And she asks if we still need the EA, now that the Ottawa blockade is over.

Sen. Marshall says she's also concerned about the freezing of bank accounts, and how those accounts can be released again. She calls the freezes an invisible, punative process, an ill-thought out idea to being with.

Sen. Marshall argues that we are being rushed to do this, without enough study. She will be voting no.

Up now, is Sen. Dennis Patterson, a former Conservative, who crossed the floor just a couple of weeks ago, to join the Canadian Senators Group. We hold a unique veto power, he says. The question is - should we used it?

Patterson quit the Conservative caucus over its approach to the convoy issue. (He's a lawyer, a former premier of NWT, the Senator from Nunavut.)

Sen. Patterson says he has lot of questions about how we got to this place. Why didn't the city of Ottawa prepare? Why didn't we hear a peep from the head of the RCMP?

We have peace, order and good government in our constitution, says Sen. Patterson, yet here we are, after a protest turned into an illegal occupation.

We cannot move forward in this debate, says Sen. Patterson, without the fullest information possible to understand how the convoy did so many illegal acts for three long weeks. Why was the premier absent?

Sen. Patterson says the PM was absent at first, then divisive. Meantime the convoy circled schools and airports. Ottawa is home of the second-largest population of Inuit in Canada, and Patterson said he heard from many Nunavut parents afraid for their kids living in Ottawa.

Inuit in Ottawa were unable to access services or reach safe spaces because of the convoy. They were afraid.

Sen. Patterson says there was no diplomatic way forward with the convoy. He rejects the idea that is was possible to negotiate with people who were making threats and making unreasonable demands.

Are we still in an emergency? That's Patterson's question. If we have a national police force and anti-terrorist capacity and CSIS, do we need still require the emergency orders? "The answer to that is, 'I don't know.'"

Sen. Patterson says we need a powerful oversight committee with access to all the necessary information, to keep the government in check in real time.

Sen. Patterson praises Brian Mulroney and Perrin Beatty for creating this Emergencies legislation in the first place, which provides for democratic oversight by parliamentarians.

Sen. Patterson says he's triple vaxxed and proud to be so. Says strict public health measures in Nunavut have kept people safe. But he says he's still worried that we have demonized the unvaccinated.

We should all be deeply disturbed that we have lost the capacity for nuanced political conversation in this country, says Patterson.

Patterson says he's torn on how to cast his vote. And....with that....there's a glitch and we've lost the connection to the main Senate feed.

Patterson says he believe there was a real emergency - but he's not sure that emergency still exists. Says he will listen to the debate, and he hasn't made up his mind.

Now we hear from Sen. Julie Miville-Dechene, an ISG senator from Quebec, and a former Radio-Canada journalist and ombudsperson. She speaks first about the legacy of the War Measures Act in Quebec.

Speaking in French, she says it's clear to her that this isn't an easy decision and nothing is black and white. It's clear the blockades were well organized, and the protestors made threats, and carried symbols of hate.

She notes the Emergencies Act is more measured than the old War Measures Act. But she notes that the border protests mostly cleared up without it - and that five provinces officially oppose the act.

Now speaking in English, she talks about Canada's international reputation, and how it has been hurt both by the protests, AND by the invocation of the Emergencies Act.

She acknowledges that her views are coloured by her experiences with the War Measures Act. But she says the circumstances have changed, and the arguments against invoking the Emergencies Act are now overwhelming.

There will always be risks and threats in Canada, she says, switching back to French. But that is not enough to justify continuing with the Emergencies Act, says Sen. M-D.

We need more social cohesion in an age of on-line radicalization, says Sen. Miville-Dechene.

Up now - Sen. Leo Housakos, a Conservative senator from Quebec. Says the Senate is there to be the voice of people, and to provide oversight of the government.

Sen. Housakos says PM Trudeau tried to say the protesters were a fringe group. How could they be both a small fringe and at the same time, a national political threat, he asks?

Sen. Housakos says this wasn't a fringe. And that it was political posturing to call the protesters extremists or racists.

Sen. Housakos says people have a right to make their own medical decisions. Compares vaccination to abortion, and says no one should force you to have or not have an abortion.

And people, he says, have a fundamental right to protest. He says Indigenous protesters and BLM protesters also deserve to be respected.

Housakos says the PM didn't run out to invoke the Emergencies Act when people were burning down churches and desecrating statues.

Sen. Housakos says even vaccinated people are frustrated by vaccine mandates that don't make any sense. Why can you fly to visit a sick family member in the United States, he asks, but not drive across the border in Vermont?

Sen. Housakos says the government is saying "Trust me! Trust me!" without showing us the evidence. There is no need for the government to act like a dictatorship.

Foreign investment in Canada has come to a stand still since the invocation of the Emergencies Act, says Housakos. (This, um, seems a bit implausible, since the Act has been in effect for only five working days.)

Sen. Housakos takes a moment now to critique Senate reform, mocking the idea of independent senators.

Canada is now a bureaucratic oligarchy, says Sen. Housakos. But citizens who work in the private sector have been hit with a 30 per cent pay cut, he says. (I don't quite know where that data point comes from.)

And Sen. Housakos runs out of time before he can conclude this remarks. We move now to ISG Senator Colin Deacon from Nova Scotia.

Sen. Deacon points out that the convoy occupiers didn't just want an end of federal vaccine mandates, but an end to provincial mandates, and American mandates too.

The occupiers shut down businesses and put thousands out of work. The border blockades has huge economic impacts. And for whatever reason, police in the nation's capital were unable to enforce the law, says Sen. Deacon.

(Footnote- I keep going back and forth, spelling it protestor and protester. Both are "correct" - the first is British, the second American. Which spelling do you think I should chose?)

Sen. Deacon asks from hard important questions about intelligence failures. Was there appropriate sharing of information, he asks.

Sen. Deacon, a member of the Senate banking committee, asks now about the freezing and tracking of bank accounts, and about the new payment technologies and platforms, and the regulation of crypto. It shouldn't have take a crisis for this to happen, he says.

Sen. Deacon says our financial regulators have not kept up with new market realities. We have to make data privacy rights a priority too, he says.

Sen. Deacon praises health care workers, truck drivers, journalists, front line workers, everyone who has worked so hard for Canada over the last two years.

Up now is the Sen. Diane Bellemare of the Progressive Senators Group, an economist and former professor of economics. (She was appointed as a Conservative, but has been very independment since then, moving from group to group.)

Like her fellow Quebec senators, she compares the EA to the old War Measures Act. The new act, she says, includes recognition of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, something that didn't exist during the FLQ crisis.

And she notes the economic consequences of the protest and the blockades. But she is also concerned about the reduction of civil liberties that accompanied efforts to control the Covid pandemic.

Do we need the Emergencies Act, Bellemare asks. What kind of precedent does it set? It is supported by the majority of the population and was passed by the House of Commons, she notes.

Our confederation, she says, needs ways for better consultation with the provinces. This debate has shown how much more we need dialogue and consultation to combat polarization, Sen Bellemare concludes.

We hear now from Alberta senator Scott Tannas, the leader of the Canadian Senators Group. As a group leader, he is entitled to speak for up to 45 minutes. A former Conservative, he crossed the floor about two years ago to sit as an independent.

Sen. Tannas says this has been a wonderful debate, and that he wishes more people knew about the Senate and its members. But he says he almost envies the certainty so many senators have shown on this issue.

"My community, my country, is divided. Severely divided. We can't have a discussion about anything anymore because we can't even agree on the facts," says Sen. Tannas. And he is so right.

Sen. Tannas says he's not seeing leadership from the PM, from the Leader of the Opposition, or from Canada's premiers.

Sen. Tannas thanks the thousands of Canadian truckers who do difficult, dangerous, solitary work, and who have done so much for Canadians all through this Covid crisis.

Sen. Tannas says the reputation of truckers has been appropriated by others for their own political purposes. But he wants to thank them for what they do.

Sen. Tannas also praises the police for their service over the last weeks.