Commentary
An Congressional Order (OIC) is a legislative tool used by Congress to enact an action or regulation without going through all the steps formally required to pass a bill or motion in Congress. It is recognized that the Cabinet can use this tool for issues that do not deserve or do not have time for full debate in parliament.
Due to the undemocratic nature of these orders, they are to be used relatively sparingly and only when necessary. doing.
The Trudeau administration is increasingly resistant to introducing legislation to the House of Representatives when it can be avoided by other congressional means. The government announced a proposal three months ago in Bill 21 to ban the sale and transfer of all handguns. Rather than waiting for Congress to consider the bill, the government is phasing out the import ban through her OIC.
There are no pending emergencies addressed by such an import ban. There was no rush to impose an economically destructive import ban. However, this import ban is not harmless. Thousands of law-abiding firearms businesses have been hit financially by the ban, with little indication of a measurable impact on firearms crime.
So why are you in a hurry?
With the OIC, the government no longer has to answer questions from opposition members in the House of Commons. They don’t have to publicly justify their moves, nor do they have to face the possibility of their motion being amended. Liberal governments have come to view the House of Commons not as an institution for democratic debate, but as an obstacle bypassed for convenience.
If the government were able to enact most of the measures in Bill 21 before it was debated in Congress, it would be much harder to stop the legislation. It looks like a closed deal and the amendment will be difficult to pass.
Using the OIC to avoid legislative scrutiny is bad enough. The liberal government is also passing her secret OIC at record speed. The secret OIC is exactly what its name suggests. They are orders passed by the Cabinet that are not publicly shared. They are not monitored or scrutinized. They are one of the most undemocratic tools the government has, and they use them frequently.
A total of 18 secret OICs were adopted by the government between 2002 and 2012. By comparison, the Trudeau administration has adopted 40 OICs since his 2020 alone. I don’t know what they were or who they influenced.
The only tool more powerful than a covert OIC is the activation of emergency laws. The law allows the government to unilaterally suspend the individual rights of citizens in the form of martial law. An investigation into the government’s use of the emergency law has yet to begin, but there is a firm justification for liberals to use such brute-force methods to deal with this winter’s peaceful and destructive motorcade protests. There is already mounting evidence that they never had sex.
It could have also brought a lawsuit in Congress to give law enforcement more tools to wipe out protests. The NDP-backed Liberal Party could have passed several motions to that effect. Instead, they chose the nuclear option and invoked the Emergency Act. The Trudeau administration did not want to take their case to Congress and deal with the thorny issue of public attention for their actions.
Almost every recent move by liberal governments seems to be crafted to further consolidate their powers and avoid public attention to their actions.
If the House does not hold government accountable, it is hoped that the free media will. But liberal governments have worked hard to prevent that from happening.
The government has opened the floodgates of subsidies by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the media industry. You can’t pretend you don’t. How many staff are outlets willing to cut in order to stay true to the principles of journalism?
Independent media can hold governments accountable, but the task is more difficult. Bill C-11 (Online Streaming Act)) When Bill C-18 (Online News Act) pass. Governments would then have the tools to control both the content and the financial viability of many news outlets.
It is not uncommon for leaders to view democratic oversight as an inconvenience. The current government views democratic oversight with contempt.
We are in a state of progressive tyranny, and we are going deeper and deeper into it, one order at a time.
Views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Epoch Times.
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Cory Morgan is a Calgary-based columnist.