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18 Queen's L.J. 129 (1993)
Emergency Legislation and Rights in Canada: The War Measures Act and Civil Liberties

handle is hein.journals/queen18 and id is 135 raw text is: Emergency Legislation and Rights in Canada: The War Measures Act and Civil Liberties Patricia Peppin* From the moment of its enactment in 1914 until its final invocation in 1970, the War Measures Act was a tool through which the civil liberties of Canadians were swiftly abrogated. Under the Act, successive Canadian governments were able to trench on a broad range of rights through a variety of policies, ranging from censorship and restrictions on association to the infamous war-time internments of Canadians of Ukranian and Japanese descent. In this article Professor Peppin recounts the history of the Act's application, a history of abuse which, she maintains, was played out over several generations, unfettered by opposition parties, the press, or the judiciary. Introduction All liberal democratic states face the dilemma of reconciling protection of civil liberties with protection of the state itself from internal or external threats to its security. Liberal democratic principles require stringent limitations on the authority of government to trench upon rights. Yet there is widespread recognition that circumstances may exist under which the social order is so gravely endangered that actions overriding rights are justifiable. These conflicting needs have confronted liberal democratic states with a fundamental tension in constitutional law. Canadian law in this area has been the subject of recurring and * Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen's University. The author wishes to thank George Perlin for his personal and intellectual support of this project since it began, Emeritus Professor H.R.S. Ryan for his guidance, Jonathan Eaton, Chris Kendall and Yvonne Chisholm for their excellent research assistance, and Sandy Tallen for her efficient work producing this manuscript. The author is also grateful to the Advisory Research Committee of Queen's University for providing a grant to support this research. P. Peppin

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