Alberta will launch a Court challenge of the Trudeau governmentโs invocation of the Emergencies Act, because it is:
- unnecessary
- disproportionate
- violates natural justice
- intrudes into provincial jurisdiction
- creates a dangerous precedent.
I have written to Prime Minister Trudeau outlining Albertaโs opposition to invocation of the Emergencies Act, and calling for an end to the pointless trucker vax mandate and travel restrictions.
1/ This morning I told Prime Minister Trudeau that Albertaโs Government is opposed to the invocation of the federal Emergencies Act.
We have all of the legal tools and operational resources required to maintain order. The Act would add no relevant additional powers or resources.
The Trudeau governmentโs invocation of the Emergencies Act is unnecessary, disproportionate, violates natural justice, intrudes into provincial jurisdiction, and creates a dangerous precedent.
Alberta will challenge it in court.
Today, I've signed a letter along with
@PremierScottMoe
,
@GovGianforte
and 15 other American governors urging President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau to drop the cross-border vaccine mandate for truckers.
It's bad public health theatre and it needs to go.
Read below โฌ:
Two weeks ago I called on convoy organizers to disassociate themselves from symbols of hatred displayed by a small number of people. They did so.
Today pro-lockdown counter protestors displayed Communist flags & signs in Ottawa, but the media has been predictably silent about it
Alberta is filing a Court challenge to the unjustified use of the Emergencies Act.
We may also intervene in support of other Court challenges.
As Tommy Douglas said about the use of the War Measures Act in 1970, itโs like โusing a sledgehammer to crack a peanut.
Alberta will launch a Court challenge of the Trudeau governmentโs invocation of the Emergencies Act, because it is:
- unnecessary
- disproportionate
- violates natural justice
- intrudes into provincial jurisdiction
- creates a dangerous precedent.
There was no compelling reason to invoke the Emergencies Act a week ago. The blockades at Windsor and Coutts had been resolved using ordinary legal means.
Now that order has been restored in Ottawa, the extension of these extraordinary powers is obviously massive over reach.
PM Trudeau was quick to condemn Covid policy protestors as Nazis.
He recently condemned parental rights protestors as hate-mongers.
But today thousands of Canadians brandishing flags of banned terrorist groups openly celebrated the massacre of Jews & the PM hasnโt said a word.
Shocked to learn that my longtime friend Martin Lee, founder of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, was arrested today together with many of
#HongKong
โs most prominent citizens. Martin is the elder statesman of Hong Kong democracy. I hope for his immediate release.
Federal travel restrictions are hurting our economy with no measurable public health benefit.
It's time to learn to live with COVID, and that means ending unnecessary restrictions.
We will be introducing a motion calling on Ottawa to drop pointless travel restrictions.
1/ There never was an emergency that required these extra-judicial powers.
What a humiliation for those who were defending the indefensible 5 minutes ago.
Alberta intends to proceed with an application for judicial review of the EA invocation to address this abuse of power.
PM
@JustinTrudeau
has just said that there is no longer an emergency and he is rescinding the use of the act.
He defended the use of the act but said existing laws are now sufficient.
#cdnpoli
Today at 5 pm I will announce Albertaโs path back to normal - a careful and prudent plan to lift damaging restrictions if pressure on our hospitals continues to decline.
Please tune in.
If the Canada-USA trucker vaccine mandate wasn't bad enough, now Justin Trudeau wants to bring in a mandate for truckers going between provinces.
Alberta will fight this every step of the way - including in court, if we have to.
๐ฝ WATCH: โฌ
Albertaโs Legislature removed the power of mandatory vaccination from the Public Health Act last year and will not revisit that decision, period.
While we strongly encourage those who are eligible to get vaccinated, it is ultimately a personal choice that individuals must make.
BREAKING: Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos said that provinces likely will start turning to mandatory vaccination policies to deal with swelling COVID caseloads threatening to overwhelm hospitals.
Starting tomorrow, masks will not be mandatory for Alberta students while attending school.
Kids must come first as we lift damaging restrictions.
Looking forward to all the smiling faces tomorrow! ๐
After President Biden blocked Albertaโs
#KeystoneXL
Pipeline, the USA continues to buy 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Russia.
That wealth finances Putinโs aggression.
What a bizarre security and energy policy.
In the 24 hours after Putin recognized two breakaway Ukrainian republics, the U.S. and its allies bought $700 million in Russian oil, gas and commodities.
@JavierBlas
says it'll be business as usual
Prime Minister Trudeau just accused my good friend
@MelissaLantsman
, a Jewish MP, of โstanding with people who wave swastikas.โ
The Prime Minister should lead by reducing tensions at this time. Instead he has decided to divide, defame and inflame.
Trudeau responds to Jewish Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman: โConservative Party members can stand with people who wave swastikas, they can stand with people who wave the confederate flag...โ
The federal governmentโs vaccine mandate for truckers is bad public health theatre.
It needs to go, along with pointless federal travel restrictions.
It's time to get life back to normal.
๐ฅ WATCH โฌ:
The
@ABFedLabour
is in court today seeking an order to force all kids to wear masks in school.
The AFL is a legal affiliate of the NDP.
Children have carried an unfair share of the burden during Covid.
Itโs time for the NDP and AFL to stop.
Let kids be kids!
The verbal harassment and threats directed at Minister
@cafreeland
during her visit to Alberta yesterday were reprehensible.
If you disagree with a politician, by all means exercise your right to protest. But screaming threatening language & physical intimidation cross the line.
I'm calling on
@JustinTrudeau
to get rid of federal travel restrictions, including:
๐ 72-hour pre-departure testing
๐ arrivals testing and isolation; and
๐ quarantining for kids under 5.
These ineffective mandates have to go.
๐ฝ WATCH โฌ
My message to Ottawa:
End pointless travel restrictions now.
They no longer serve a public health purpose and hurt our economy.
It's time to learn to live with COVID and get our lives back to normal.
BREAKING:
Alberta balances budget!
Deficit gone!
Due to spending restraint + dynamic growth in every sector, Alberta projects first surplus in 14 years.
Alberta leads ๐จ๐ฆ in growth.
The economyโs diversifying.
Budget 2022 โก๏ธ moving forward into a bright future.
Disturbing to see that the teachers union thinks unmasked kids create โan unsafe workplace,โ and is threatening legal action to force kids to wear masks indefinitely.
Almost all Alberta teachers are triple vaccinated.
Treat kids like kids, not โunsafeโ vectors of transmission.
3/ I also expressed our concern that invocation of the federal Emergencies Act could escalate a tense situation.
I reiterated my call on Ottawa to work with the Biden Administration to end the cross border trucker vaccine mandate, as it serves no useful public health purpose.
Alberta would be delighted to welcome such a visit from President
@JoeBiden
.
We could discuss how to ship nearly 1 million barrels of day of responsibly produced energy every day from the USAโs closest friend and ally!
All it would take is his approval for Keystone XL. Easy.
๐จ ๐จ scoops -> President Bidenโs advisers are discussing a possible visit to Saudi Arabia this spring to help repair relations and convince the Kingdom to pump more oil, Axios has learned.
Good news!
The Federal Court has granted Alberta intervenor status to support the
@CDNConstFound
and the
@cancivlib
in their legal challenge of the Trudeau governmentโs use of the Emergencies Act.
BREAKING
Albertaโs government will help people with the skyrocketing cost of energy by eliminating the provincial gas tax while prices are high.
Details here:
Now if Canada really wants to help defang Putin, then letโs get some pipelines built!
Alberta stands ready, willing and able to supply the energy needed to displace Russia from global markets.
Message to Ottawa and Washington: stop helping Putin and OPEC by killing pipelines.
#RCMP
call latest attack on
#CoastalGasLink
people and property โa calculated and organized violent attack that left its victims shaken and a multimillion dollar path of destruction.โ
#LNGinBC
#bcpoli
#cdnpoli
Tommy Douglasโs NDP courageously stood up to the War Measures Act in 1970.
Tonight the NDP cravenly gave up the pretence of standing for civil liberties.
Todayโs NDP is just an extension of Justin Trudeauโs increasingly divisive Liberal Party.
I am deeply concerned by reports that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing next week.
My full statement:
As a Canadian, Iโm insulted by the Trump Administrationโs attempt to stop vital medical supplies coming into Canada.
This is not in anyoneโs best interest, and itโs not how friends and neighbours treat each other when things get tough.
Justin Trudeau's so-called emergency is entirely of his own making, and he's using it to try and justify his own undemocratic power grab.
Looking forward to
#ableg
debating and I expect condemning this historic overreach from the federal government.
๐ฅ WATCH โฌ
๐จ BREAKING ๐จ
The "No More Pipelines" Act (Bill C-69) has been ruled unconstitutional by Alberta's Court of Appeal in a major 4 to 1 decision!
An historic victory, and central part of our strategy to fight for a fair deal!
Pleased to report that the Court of QB just threw-out the ridiculous application by the NDP Labour Federation to force kids to wear masks indefinitely.
Also glad to see that the teachers union backed down on last weekโs threat to do the same thing.
Common sense is prevailing
The
@ABFedLabour
is in court today seeking an order to force all kids to wear masks in school.
The AFL is a legal affiliate of the NDP.
Children have carried an unfair share of the burden during Covid.
Itโs time for the NDP and AFL to stop.
Let kids be kids!
Iโm getting pictures like this from grocery stores across Alberta this morning.
This is turning into a crisis. It requires immediate action by the Canadian & US governments.
Early next week, the COVID cabinet committee will approve a plan to lift restrictions, starting with the Restrictions Exemption Program.
We can โ and must โ get on with our lives, restore our freedoms, and live with joy, not fear.
๐ฝ WATCH: โฌ
BREAKING
Alberta will lift almost all remaining public health restrictions on March 1.
Covid hospitalizations continue to fall.
Vaccination rates are up. New treatments are being approved.
It's time to move forward safely, getting life back to normal.
Albertaโs conservative MLAs have called on Trudeau to scrap pointless travel restrictions, including the vaccine passport.
I donโt know any other major country in the world that has a similar policy.
The continued romanticization of Communism by some on the Canadian left is vile, & is consistently ignored by mainstream media.
According to Harvard University Pressโs Black Book of Communism, >100 million people have been killed by Communist regimes:
Ottawaโs trucker vaccine mandate has to go.
We are at the peak of supply chain constraints with empty shelves popping up all over the country.
We can't afford to lose thousands of truckers.
Itโs time for us to move forward together as we safely lift Covid restrictions.
We need certainty and unity, not confusion and division.
Thatโs why Albertaโs government will amend the law to prevent municipalities from imposing their own restrictions.
COVID-19 restrictions have caused so much terrible division in our communities and even in our personal relationships.
Itโs time to come together, put these damaging restrictions behind us, and move on!
Iโm in complete agreement with the Prime Ministerโs statement. A reasonable, balanced and firm assertion that Canada will not be bullied, and that we will retaliate if the US Administration does not end its attack on our steel exports.
JUST IN: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will impose retaliatory measures to answer President Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum: "Canadians: we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around."
This is the most shameful thing I've ever seen.
Trudeau just accused
@MelissaLantsman
of standing with a Swastika.
Members of the Conservative Caucus have family who died in the holocaust.
I demanded Trudeau apologize three times and he refused. Shame on him.
In the spring, we made a stupid mistake with restrictions that tilted the playing field toward big box stores by keeping them open, while closing our small businesses. For that, I apologize.
With these carefully targeted measures to slow the spread, won't make that mistake again
This๐is what chasing โCovid zeroโ leads to. People screaming from their windows in despair after being locked in their homes for days, with no end in sight.
The virus canโt be contained forever. In Alberta, we have taken a balanced approach, and weโve learned to live with Covid
'Control your desire for freedom': A drone in Shanghai has been broadcasting this message to residents in response to thousands screaming from their balconies over a strict COVID-19 lockdown.
Thank-you to all of the truckers out there!
Without truckers, our stores would be empty, and our economy would ground to a halt. Trucking is tough, essential work, and we should all be grateful for those who do it.
The United States is our most important ally & trading partner.
As friends & allies, we are deeply disturbed that one of
@POTUS
first actions was to rescind the Presidential permit for Keystone XL Pipeline border crossing.
Thatโs not how you treat a friend & ally.
My statement:
Minister, those are oil cars.
They are moving oil that could have been shipped more safely by the Northern Gateway and Energy East pipelines that were killed by your government.
I spoke to
@JustinTrudeau
& congratulated him on his partyโs reelection.
I underscored that the deep frustration expressed by Albertans is very real. National unity & economic prosperity require a profound response. We must get pipelines built & get a fair deal in the federation
Sad to see whatโs happened to the once great Liberal Party.
Justin Trudeauโs top advisor thinks a working guy wearing a mandated safety vest is a Nazi dog whistle.
A world away from Jean Chrรฉtien praising the dignity of work.
Thank you
#Alberta
!
We Albertans are proud Canadians and tonight we have elected a government that will stand up for our fair deal in confederation.
#abvote
โPlease stop kicking us while we're down. Albertans have been generous and will continue to be generous, but these attacks on our natural resource industries are unwarranted, they are divisive, they are, I believe in a way, un-Canadian at a time like thisโ
The indoor mask requirement is gone!
We absolutely respect the right of Albertans to wear masks.
It just wonโt be mandatory.
Itโs time to get back to normal.
Great to see our friends in Saskatchewan, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island chart a course toward freedom from COVID restrictions.
Hopefully
@JustinTrudeau
will soon follow.
Tomorrow Alberta will move forward as the first province to drop almost all COVID-19 restrictions.
Itโs a safe and prudent plan to get back to normal.
Albertans have every right to expect that people in positions of public trust be held to a higher standard of conduct during COVID-19.
Over the weekend I have listened to Albertans who are sending a clear message that they want real consequences for these actions.
My statement:
I am on the phone with US Governors this morning who share my concerns.
We are working on a joint letter to the President and the Prime Minister urging them to use common sense, end the the policy that has taken thousands of trucks of the road.
1/ Blockades must end and order must be restored, but invocation of the federal Emergencies Act is disproportionate and unjustified.
Freezing peopleโs bank accounts without due process violates natural justice.
This overreach creates a dangerous precedent.
Alberta is lowering the minimum age to receive the Astra Zeneca Covid-19 vaccine from 55 to 40.
This decision is based on growing scientific knowledge about the vaccine & is based on
@CMOH_Alberta
โs advice.
Details will follow tomorrow morning, & bookings will open for Tuesday
I have resigned as Member of the Legislative Assembly for Calgary-Lougheed.
Thank-you to my constituents for the honour of representing them in Parliament and the Legislature over the past 25 years.
My statement:
My message to Mr. Blanchet, who attacked Alberta's energy industry this morning, which pays heavily into Quebec's $13 billion of equalization:
You can't have your cake and eat it too; it's time to pick a lane.
Bloc Leader
@yfblanchet
on advice for those seeking more independence in the west: "If they were attempting to create a green state in western canada, I might be tempted to help them. If they are trying to create an oil state...they cannot expect any help from us."
#cdnpoli
The Prime Minister says he broke the ethics law & violated prosecutorial independence in order to โprotect jobs?โ
For the record: this is the same PM who killed thousands of jobs & prolonged a recession in our energy sector by killing the Northern Gateway & Energy East pipelines
HSBC is boycotting Albertaโs oil sands.
Meanwhile, the CEO of HSBC is โexcitedโ to be headlining a conference promoting investment in Saudi Arabi, which executed 37 people yesterday.
The next Alberta Government will not tolerate this kind of hypocrisy.
Good to see provinces across Canada moving on from their COVID restrictions to get life back to normal.
I continue to call on the Prime Minister to follow the provincesโ lead by lifting ineffective federal mandates.
I visited
@FlyEIA
Intl Arrivals to monitor
#COVID19
screening measures.
I am very concerned about reports from travellers on inadequate federal screening protocols for international travellers.
I have directed provincial officials to deploy provincial resources to AB airports
A thoughtful statement from Canada's chief medical officers which acknowledges the damaging impacts of COVID restrictions, particularly on kids, and speaks openly about scaling down restrictions.
Itโs worth reading their joint statement to Canadians โก
It was gracious of Ed Whittingham to resign a day before we could fire him.
Our government will never appoint people like him who are avowed opponents of Alberta jobs. And we will stop all funding to groups engaged in economic sabotage against Alberta.
Justin Trudeauโs carbon tax is helping drive record-high gas prices. While Albertaโs government will take action, Justin Trudeau must stop his plan to triple the cost of his carbon tax!
โก Read more:
Every Christmas Eve Dutch children place candles on the graves of the 1355 Canadian soldiers buried at Holten Cemetery. At Chritmas let us remember them, and the 118,000 other Canadians who never made it home.
When I was nine, former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker sat down & chatted with me for 10 minutes. That conversation kindled in me a deep interest in public service, which has brought me to this day.
Thank-you for being kind to a young lad, and an inspiration, Mr. Diefenbaker!
Received a moving letter from a couple in Kingston, Ontario, who also sent a cheque to the Govt of Alberta โto express support for Albertans in a manner that goes a bit beyond lip service.โ
They โappreciate how Alberta has contributed to the financial health of all of Canada...
Prime Minister
@JustinTrudeau
was in Alberta today and said that Albertans concerns about national unity are the fault of โconservative politicians.โ
In fact, heโs got it exactly backwards.
Ottawaโs pointless travel restrictions have to go.
We are renewing our call to drop all of the travel restrictions, including the pointless proof of vaccination program.
All Canadians should be freely able to fly anywhere in Canada or out of our country.
Protests in Canada and elsewhere openly celebrating the massacre of innocent civilians for the crime of being Jewish reveals how deep currents of antisemitism have been allowed to develop in western societies.
These protestors must be universally condemned.
Congratulations to our friends in the United Kingdom on officially regaining their independence tonight!
I look forward to Canada now strengthening our historic relationship with the UK. ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ง
It makes no sense to force people flying into Canada to take a PCR test when they had to get a negative PCR test, and be fully vaxed, to get on the plane in the first place.
My message to Ottawa: Itโs time for some common sense here.
Time to end PCR testing on arrival.