Thread by @Paulatics

Sen. Coyle asks Tannas a question about a poll he cited that said 39 % of Canadians oppose the act. Is that fair, she says, when many Canadians are misinformed and believe that this is the War Measures Act.

Sen. Tannas says the Emergencies Act has never been used and we've gone more than 30 years without it, despite difficult times for this country.

"I think Canadians know it is not a piece of legislation that should be used lightly," says Tannas. And they know it infringes on liberties. The poll, he says, highlights our divisions.

Tannas says 'wackos' attatch to every protest, but he never saw white supremacists in Ottawa.

A question now from Sen. Brent Cotter. He asks whether we ought to endorse the invocation of the act, but then ask for it to be lifted. Would that be a better course?

Sen. Tannas says he doesn't feel obligated to take a two-step process.

Sorry - I stopped live tweeting so I could ask my own question! I asked Sen. Tannas about his assertion that he saw no evidence of white supremacists in Ottawa - and pointed out the arress in Coutts of people who appear to be affiliated with the Diagalon white supremacist group.

Sen. Tannas reinterated that he saw no racist signs or flags in Ottawa. Says he is not an expert on hate groups, and that he's unaware whether white supremacist activity is on the rise, or is diminishing, or is what it has always been.

He did not respond to my question about the arrest of Diagalon affiliated protesters in Coutts who have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Reinterated that millions of Canadian support these protests.

Sen. Tannas is now answering questions from Sen. Kim Pate. They are talking about the need for an oversight committee that looks at the way police handled the protest. Sen. Pate says she's concerned about a double standard in the way these protestors were treated.

Politically, says Sen. Tannas, we are as gridlocked as Wellington Street was in the midst of the occupation.

We come to Ottawa, says Tannas, to argue and disagree and to try to find common ground. We need to do that, he says.

A question now from Sen. Marc Gold. He thanks Sen. Tannas for acknowledging the govt was right to invoke the Emergencies Act last week. But asks Tannas why he doesn't have faith the government will ask responsibly now.

Sen. Tannas says the clear purpose for which the act was invoked is over. Says the RCMP, CSIS, OPP should be able to deal with what comes next.

Sen. Tannas says we should put the EA back in the closet where it belongs; we can always invoke it again if we need it.

Sen. Housakos asks a question now. In his preamble, he says the protest in Ottawa was peaceful and tempered and that people left when asked - unlike the behaviour, he says, during BLM protests.

Sen. Housakos asks about precedent this sets - and about provincial opposition. But Sen. Tannas's time is up and he can't answer.

Now up is Conservative Senator Salma Ataullahjan. Says she's an advocate for human rights and will also protect the right to protest. But she says there were Confederate flags, other white supremacist flags on the Hill, that women of colour were harassed and bullied.

(It is interesting that Sen. Ataullahjan, a Muslim Pakistani-Canadian woman saw things on Parliament Hill that her white colleagues somehow just didn't notice. A special kind of colour blindness?)

Sen. Ataullahjan raises important concerns about the way the Emergencies Act might be used at some future date to surveil Canada's Muslim community.

Meantime, she says, the protests are over, the roads are clear. Why do we still need the Emergencies Act?

Sen. Kim Pate now asks a question about misapplication of the act. Sen. Ataullahjan says immigrants from countries where the police cannot be trusted are especially uneasy about this act.