Everything about The War Measures Act totally explained
The
War Measures Act (enacted in August 1914, replaced by the
Emergencies Act in 1988) was a
Canadian statute that allowed the government to assume sweeping emergency powers.
The act was invoked three times in Canadian history:
First World War
Thousands of Germans and other aliens were interned in 24
internment camps across Canada as a result of the War Measures Act, issuing into Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920. These enemy aliens not only suffered imprisonment but many thousands more were forced to carry identity documents and report regularly to the authorities. Those who were jailed were also subjected to various state-sanctioned censures, including restrictions on their freedom of movement, association and free speech and, in 1917, to disenfranchisement. The internment operations continued until June 1920, nearly 2 years after the end of the war. Since the mid-1980s the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association has called for an official recognition of the internment operations and a restitution of the contemporary value of the internees' confiscated wealth, those monies to be dedicated to various commemorative and educational projects.
It was also envoked by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King during the Cold War Crisis after Igor Gouzenko, a Russian clerk working at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, discovered evidence of a home-grown Canadian spy ring operating. The ring was supplying the USSR with information, and Gouzenko traded this information with King for protection. King envoked the war measures act in secret to allow the police to arrest suspects without evidence and cause. In all 11 suspects were arrested in Montreal,Toronto, and London, England.
Second World War
During the war there was widespread fear of foreign nationals spying and working against the country of Canada. As a result the federal government used the act to implement
Japanese Canadian internment. Any citizen of Japanese descent including children were sent to internment camps for the duration of the war.
In 1970, Quebec nationalists and
FLQ members kidnapped British diplomat
James Cross and
Quebec provincial cabinet minister
Pierre Laporte, who was later murdered. What is now referred to as the
October Crisis raised fears in Canada of a militant terrorist faction rising up against the government. At the request of the
Mayor of Montreal,
Jean Drapeau, and the government of the Province of Quebec, and in response to general threats and demands made by the FLQ, the federal Liberal government of
Pierre Trudeau invoked the act. He did this so police had more power in arrest and detention, so they could find and stop the FLQ members. There was a large amount of concern about the act being invoked as it was a direct threat to
civil liberties.
Further Information
Get more info on 'War Measures Act'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://war_measures_act.totallyexplained.com">War Measures Act Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
