Canada's Justin Trudeau wins parliamentary approval for emergency powers declaration

Justin Trudeau
(Image credit: Dave Chan/AFP/Getty Images)

Canada's House of Commons voted 185 to 151 on Monday to authorize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's invocation last week of the Emergencies Act to quell disruptive protests that used trucks and other large vehicles to blockade border crossings and paralyzed much of Ottawa for 23 days.

Trudeau's Liberal Party and the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) voted to extend the emergency powers past the initial seven-day window while the opposition Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois opposed the measure. The first-ever invocation of the 1988 Emergencies Act will face a vote in the upper house of Parliament as early as Tuesday, and the courts will also consider its legal propriety. It automatically expires in 30 days without another vote in Parliament.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.