OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Canada’s House of Commons has voted in favor of a motion to confirm and maintain the Emergencies Act invoked by Justin Trudeau last week.
Trudeau won the vote Monday night with a majority of 185 votes in favor of the Emergencies Act and 151 against.
The motion will be presented to the Senate chamber this afternoon, and the debates will take place from Tuesday to Thursday next week. The Senators will then vote.
As expected, the New Democrats bolstered the minority Liberal government by voting in favor of the Act, whereas the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois opposed it.
Vote result: on a motion for confirmation of the declaration of emergency was adopted. #cdnpoli
Yeas: 185✅
Nays: 151❌ pic.twitter.com/IbGjlD8Gwa— In the Chamber (@HoCChamber) February 22, 2022
According to a Tweet by Anthony Furey, a national columnist for Canada’s Sun newspapers, the Prime Minister himself did not show up in person for vote at the House of Commons but voted remotely.
“Trudeau didn’t even have the decency to show up in person to vote for it in the House of Commons himself,” tweeted Furey.
Trudeau didn’t even have the decency to show up in person to vote for it in the House of Commons himself.
— Anthony Furey (@anthonyfurey) February 22, 2022
The vote occurred a week after the unprecedented and controversial invocation of Canada’s Emergencies Act by Trudeau, which gave the federal government enormous powers, including the ability to shut down crowdfunding and freeze the bank accounts of freedom convoy supporters without a court order.
Trudeau justified his decision by claiming that the peaceful freedom convoy protests that had taken place in Ottawa for weeks were “hurting Canadians” and “need to stop.”
Though the majority of the peaceful protesters gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa cleared the area after at least one elderly lady was violently trampled by police, Trudeau defended the prolongation of the Emergencies Act ahead of the vote, claiming that “there continues to be real concerns about the coming days.”
“This state of Emergency is not over,” Trudeau told reporters on Monday morning. “But we will continue to evaluate every single day whether or not it is time, and we are able to lift this state of emergency.”
The endorsement of the Emergencies Act by the House can be viewed as a vote of confidence in Trudeau’s government. Had it failed to pass, it could have triggered a new federal election.
In reaction to the pressures on the Liberal MPs to vote for the motion, Abby Deshman of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association offered this statement:
We are deeply disappointed the government chose to make tonight’s vote a matter of confidence. This morning, we asked the government to hold revoke the emergency declaration and barring that, to at minimum commit to a free vote in Parliament.Instead the government made it a confidence matter and we have seen numerous government MPs express both publicly and in confidence to us that they would vote against the emergency declaration if given a chance.Let’s be clear: there is no legal justification for using the emergencies act. The broad powers the government has granted to police curtail Charter rights across the country. This risk of abuse is high. The emergency declaration should be immediately revoked.
The Freedom Convoy to Ottawa has sparked similar demonstrations by truckers and others opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates around the world.