The Alberta government has declared a provincial state of emergency.

The rest is fine. It's just property.

Oh, I'm not so sure about that. The wording of the act is quite disconcerting, as it basically enables sanctioned and legal looting and pillaging by any government agency or military, without recourse or redress, short of shooting them. In an emergency like this the abuses will probably be fairly minor, but in a time of war or civil unrest it could be very, very serious. They could, if they wanted, sweep through your town, conscript your youths, steal all your food and gas, vehicles and whatever else, and keep going (if you're lucky). That's too much power for anyone.

Personally, I think that legislation like this needs to be graduated in accordance with the severity of the emergency, with strong checks to prevent provinces or cities from inflating the severity of whatever they face. Many of those rights the government are giving themselves (and depriving us of) are not applicable to all types of emergencies, and that over allocation of power makes it prone to abuse.

By all means, conscript people (with clear and defined limits) into support roles where they don't face risks.

Enslavement by the state is never acceptable. No exceptions. In a country like this, it would be a pretty unlikely emergency that didn't have an abundance of volunteers (perhaps nuclear or bio, people are more squeamish about those). They need to make do with that, and/or activate the military to a degree where they can handle it. National (or provincial) emergencies is one of the main reasons we keep them around, right? It's certainly not defense, with the colossus of the U.S. arsenal adjacent to us. Regardless, it is unacceptable for that military to be provisioned from the pantries of non-consenting citizens and without recompense, at least in any condition short of a dire threat to our sovereignty.

For all that we're so comfortable and accustomed to our relative freedom and democracy, with this act and the artfully renamed Emergencies Act (formerly the War Measures Act, the one that the last Trudeau got into hot water over invoking) we are always on a precipice of being legally turned into something far different, something we consider backwards and shameful in other countries.

Obviously we need some strong provisions in our law to handle real emergencies, but I think we could continue to better address and legislate them, without the same degree of power grab.

/r/canada Thread Parent Link - alberta.ca