Justin Trudeau’s government has passed 72 secret executive orders since 2015

A CBC investigation, which examined 8,900 executive orders passed by the federal government, shows that the number of unpublished executive orders has increased since Justin Trudeau was elected in 2015. The only indication that there is a secret executive order is a missing number in the Privy Council Office Orders in the Council database.

More than half of these secret orders were passed after April 2020, a month after the COVID-19 pandemic began in Canada. Eleven have been adopted so far in 2022.

Several factors may justify the adoption of a secret mandate. Among these, the government may cite national or military security or claim that the mandate in question relates to national security reviews of foreign investments in Canadian companies.

Gas for conspiracy theories

Opposition parties acknowledge that the government may have good reason to pass secret executive orders, but they are still concerned about the large number of those passed by the Liberals since 2015. They also fear that the government’s refusal to disclose any information about them does not support conspiracy theories.

Thirty-two secret mandates were passed under the Investment Canada Act between November 2015 and March 2021, according to Laurie Bouchard, spokeswoman for Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne. This law allows the government not to issue mandates related to national security checks of certain transactions, such as the purchase of a Canadian company by a foreign company.

It explains only part of the 55 secret commandments passed during this period.

Laurie Bouchard said information on secret orders related to the Investment Canada Act passed after March 2021 is not yet available. Seventeen secret orders were passed after March 31, 2021.

Orders are kept confidential under the Access to Information Act

The Privy Council Office has refused to release at least two of the secret executive orders passed this year under a section of the federal Freedom of Information Act that allows the government to protect documents disclosure which could reasonably be expected to harm the conduct of international activities, the defense of Canada or of Canada’s allied or associated states, or the detection, prevention or suppression of hostile or subversive activities.

One of these orders was enacted between January 28 and February 1, 2022 and the second was enacted on February 18. This corresponds respectively to the start of the trucker demonstration in downtown Ottawa and the start of the arrest. of the protesters.

The date of adoption of the second may also coincide with the concerns of the international community in the face of Russia preparing to invade Ukraine (February 24) and the sixth wave of COVID-19 in some provinces of the country.

The Privy Council Office declined to provide information on the reasons for these two secret orders.

Four more secret executive orders were passed on May 6, a day before Justin Trudeau’s surprise visit to Ukraine. A public order passed during this period sought to add individuals and companies to the list of Canadian sanctions against Russia.

The other five secret orders of 2022 were passed between March and May.

Aside from the two mandates being kept secret under the Access to Information Act, the Privy Council Office declined to explain the reasons given for not publishing others. Its spokesperson, Pierre-Alain Bujold, however wanted to prove his faith in transparency in a press release.

” The number of ordinances issued or not issued in a particular year is not a measure of a government’s transparency. “

The context of legislative, social, economic and national security changes and changes significantly from year to year.

Typically, council orders are published on the Privy Council Office website, where Canadians and members of Parliament can read them. To escape this publication, a narrow list of pre -established conditions must be respected. When they are kept secret, only four members of the cabinet and the Governor General must sign them.

Significant increase in previous governments

Former Privy Council Office officials have argued that council orders should only be kept secret with rare exceptions, since their publication is the only real tool for monitoring their use.

The CBC’s analysis of secret executive orders passed since 2002 shows that none were passed in 2002 and 2003, when Jean Chrétien was still in power, and three were passed in 2004 and 2005, under the Paul Martin government. . The number of federal secret executive orders began to rise under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. During his nine years in power, he passed 29 secret decrees.

The government should provide a more detailed explanation as to why the number of unpublished ordinances has increased.said Conservative Michael Chong, recalling that the Liberals were not shy about criticizing the number of secret executive orders passed by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives during the 2015 election campaign.

There is a growing tendency for this government to classify everything as national securityresponse by NDP MP Matthew Green.

Having too many commands without indicating what is associated with them is not transparencysaid Elizabeth May, of the Green Party.

With information from Elizabeth Thompson of the CBC