I have been reading @TondaMacC's excellent twitter stream on Trudeau's testimony before #POEC. No surprises. Trudeau claims that the EA test is broad and comes down to "reasonableness". This is the administrative state writ large. 1/
The EA was drafted tightly to bring "emergency powers" within the new Canadian Constitution. It was passed to replace and constrain the powers gov't had under the War Measures Act. Specific thresholds were set for the proper invocation of the Emergencies Act. 2/
"Reasonableness" was not a part of the EA. Strict standards were...but no longer if the Trudeau doctrine is adopted as correct the only test will be whether Cabinet thinks the EA is required and if there is a reasonable basis for that decision. 3/
If you understand the role of the state to be "getting things done" constraining the state with laws which mean what they say is an obstacle. Much better to have the state decide what laws mean. 4/
The Trudeau doctrine puts the Cabinet in a position to override any law at anytime for any purpose so long as that Cabinet, in secret, finds that it is reasonable to do so. And no, we are not allowed to see the "legal opinion" upon which this is based. 5/
I'll have more, much more, to say about Trudeau's misuse of the Emergencies Act. But Parliament and the Charter and the rest of the Constitution has just been trampled. 6/6
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