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| The Bow Wow Parliament |
The first casualty of the current pandemic in
Newfoundland and Labrador was democracy and on Tuesday, the pandemic added to
its draconian toll.
A handful of members of the House met with the
permission of a government official and passed without much discussion a
measure that created a kangaroo court in which the official could apply in
secret to two cabinet ministers, obtain a de facto conviction of someone without what
lawyers call due process, and then send off the police to scoop up the hapless person who may or may not have violated a health order under the health protection law.
Health minister John Haggie introduced the amendment. He shed no light on
why the government had banned all non-residents from entering the province
except people in two special categories. Haggie did not explain why the restrictions that had been in place were not
working. He gave no indication why he and his colleague the justice minister
needed the powers of a judge already set out in another section of the health
protection law to enforce any orders.
When his turn to speak came, opposition leader Ches
Crosbie spoke briefly about what he referred to as new police powers that would
be used to enforce all the chief medical officer’s special orders. He noted the concerned expressed to him by
lawyers that the recent travel ban was illegal and/or unconstitutional.
Then Crosbie said that he and his caucus had decided
to vote for amendment in exchange for a promise the
government would:
- read a submission from the Canadian Bar Association about the travel ban, and
- ask the chief medical officer to amend her improper travel ban to allow a few categories of exemptions they wanted.
That is all.
Such are the intellectual, ethical, and legal
standards of the Bow Wow Parliament.
