VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – In her 30 years of planning pandemic responses, Dr. Bonnie Henry never expected she would have to go this far – banning mass gatherings, closing schools and urging everyone to follow social distancing protocols.
B.C.’s provincial health officer admitted on Monday these are “very strict measures” she “never actually thought [she] would ever implement.”
“But we’ve seen the devastation that this virus can have on our communities and on our families and these are the measures that we need now,” Henry said.
The question is now: What measures come next?
And should Canadians be concerned after federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu said on Saturday the spread of the novel coronavirus could “put our civil liberties in jeopardy“?
Canadian officials have so far stopped short of issuing shelter-in-place orders requiring people to stay home except for “essential” trips such as grocery shopping and medical appointments.
California, France and Italy have already issued such orders and Canada may not be far behind.
Former interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to declare a state of emergency and order most Canadians to stay home.
“We will not view it as an assault on our civil liberties, we will see it as assault on COVID-19,” she said on Twitter.
2/2) We will not view it as an assault on our civil liberties, we will see it as assault on COVID 19. We need one message for all of Canada.
— Rona Ambrose (@RonaAmbrose) March 22, 2020
Shifting the ‘reasonable limits’ on your rights
Stewart Prest, a political science professor at Simon Fraser University, said a full lockdown shouldn’t necessarily be considered a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, whose first clause allows for “reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”
The definition of a reasonable limit can shift during a crisis, he said.
In a situation like this, we have a significant threat to the lives of a large number of Canadians and a threat to the Canadian economy as a whole,” Prest said. “In order to safeguard those fundamental rights – rights of security of the person and health and so on – the government may feel it’s necessary to restrain some of these other rights.”
The key, Prest said, is that emergency powers are temporary – but that’s not always the case.
Sometimes a crisis can open the door to a loosening of safeguards that become permanent, he said.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Congress passed the Patriot Act, which expanded law enforcement powers but was criticized as violating constitutional rights. While many aspects of the act have since been rescinded, others remain nearly 20 years later, Prest noted.
“The one risk here is that the more people feel directly threatened, the more they are likely to accept greater constraints on other freedoms,” he said.
https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2020/03/23/will-covid-19-lockdown-put-canadian-civil-liberties-in-jeopardy/
We saw what the trudeau government does with "reasonable limits" when a known mental case restored an RCMP cruiser, dawned a full RCMP uniform (all known to the real RCMP) and killed numerous people with weapons he was not allowed to own (he was banned from owning any firearms). The reasonable limits was to ban over 2,000 variations of firearms, including initially the 10 gauge and 12 gauge shotgun.
Reasonable limits to justine doesn't mean reasonable limits to Canada.
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[–] moderator99 ago (edited ago)
A provincial health officer has no authority to impose mandates. All they are allowed to do is monitor public health situations and provide advice to ministers and public officials.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/about-bc-s-health-care-system/office-of-the-provincial-health-officer
Like in the USA, laws require legislation. This COVID bullshit has not been legislated.
So they up the fear-mongering among the public to goad them into accepting the loss of their freedoms.
And the word 'temporary' could mean anything.
Thanks for posting.
[–] Zadim [S] ago
https://fee.org/articles/canadian-restaurant-owner-charged-with-trespassing-after-reopening-in-defiance-of-lockdown-orders/