NDP’s Singh defends decision to support Emergencies Act

The leader of the federal NDP is defending his party’s decision to support the use of the Emergencies Act.

Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal government needed the support of one other party in Parliament to support its decision to give law enforcement extra powers to deal with the trucker convoy protests across the country.

Jagmeet Singh’s NDP provided that support in a vote in the House of Commons on Monday night, while Candice Bergen’s Conservatives and Yves-Francois Blanchet’s Bloc Quebecois voted against it.

In an interview with Gormley on Wednesday, Singh explained why his party fell in line with the Liberals.

“We saw what was clearly an occupation of Ottawa, where residents were harassed and intimidated … We saw a border shut down and a group that was clearly intent on undermining democracy with millions of dollars at its disposal,” he said.

“Given that and the serious risk to workers, the serious risk to residents of Ottawa and the impact it had on our nation, we thought it was important at this moment to end this.”

However, while Singh’s party backed the decision in the Monday vote, he doesn’t intend to see it through the entire 30-day period the act calls for.

“We do not believe that these powers should last the full 30 days and we are prepared to withdraw our support,” he said.

Asked what would be needed to make Singh pull back and end the use of the Emergencies Act, he pointed to an oversight committee that will soon be formed to investigate whether the state of emergency still applies.

“So we’ll use that as one of the tools,” he said. “I’m receiving regular briefings. As soon as it becomes clear that the emergent and current risk and threat is dealt with, then we will push to remove these powers with the mechanism that we have of triggering a vote in the House of Commons.”

To trigger a vote, he said at least 20 MPs would need to be on board. His party has 25 sitting MPs.

However, the House is not sitting this week, so the earliest the vote could possibly happen is March 3.

So, with protesters out of Ottawa and the blockade at the border in Windsor cleared, does Singh still think the act is needed at this moment?

“What we’ve seen is the folks in Ottawa, the occupation, have moved their vehicles to just outside of the Ottawa borders into cities like Embrun and Vars and they’re waiting to see if the emergency orders would be lifted or not,” Singh said.

“Many were pushed out because of those emergency orders, and are waiting to see if they’ll be lifted. Then they return right away.”