Poilievre hints to police he would use notwithstanding clause to change laws

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he would use "whatever tools the Constitution allows" to pass criminal laws if his party forms the next government.

Speaking to the Canadian Police Association on Monday, Poilievre promised to implement more stringent requirements for bail and make it harder for convicted murderers to transfer out of maximum security prisons.

"All of my proposals are constitutional," Poilievre said.

"We will make them constitutional, using whatever tools the Constitution allows me to use to make them constitutional. I think you know exactly what I mean."

Poilievre didn't explicitly say which tools he was referring to and his office provided no official comment when asked for clarification.

In the past, the Conservative leader has said he would use the notwithstanding clause to overturn a 2022 Supreme Court decision that struck down a law that gave judges discretion to hand out consecutive, 25-year blocks of parole ineligibility to offenders who commit multiple first-degree murders.

That decision came in the case of Alexandre Bissonette, who killed six people in a Quebec City mosque in 2017. At the time of the ruling, Poilievre said he would use the notwithstanding clause to reinstate that law.

The Supreme Court of Canada is pictured at sunset in Ottawa. In recent years, the courts have struck down a number of other criminal laws passed by the Stephen Harper government. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

The courts have struck down a number of other criminal laws passed by the Stephen Harper government in recent years — including some laws on mandatory minimum sentences.

The notwithstanding clause, or Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, gives parliaments in Canada the power to override certain portions of the charter for five-year terms when passing legislation.

Once invoked, Section 33 prevents any judicial review of the legislation in question.

"I will be the democratically elected prime minister, democratically accountable to the people, and they can then make the judgments themselves on whether they think my laws are constitutional," Poilievre said in his speech on Monday.

Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani said Poilievre's comments show he is willing to follow the lead of some premiers who have decided to use, or threaten to use, the notwithstanding clause.

"I think Pierre Poilievre demonstrated very clearly to the Canadian public what his true intentions are with respect to the notwithstanding clause, and how easily he would use it," Virani told reporters Tuesday, adding that the clause "should be a last option, not a first option."

Errol Mendes, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, says using Section 33 at the federal level would send a signal to the provinces. (University of Ottawa)

Errol Mendes, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, told CBC News that in cases where the Supreme Court has made a ruling, Section 33 is the only option governments have to circumvent the ruling.

No federal government has used the clause — but a number of provincial governments have. Quebec invoked the clause to pass a language reform law that limits the use of English in the public service. Ontario also used it to pass back-to-work legislation for education workers in 2022.

Mendes cautioned that using the clause at the federal level would send a signal to provincial governments and could lead to normalizing its use.

"Essentially, it would be the straw that'll break the camel's back and lead to eventually the denigration of the charter as a whole," he said.

"It really shows there has not been a thought given to the long-term impact on Canada if we allow this thing to be used."

Asked about Poilievre's comments, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May accused Poilievre of "sloganeering untethered from principle."

"I'm deeply disturbed that Mr. Poilievre would think it's acceptable to suggest the federal government would use the notwithstanding clause to bulldoze through not just our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but centuries of adherence to the principle that anyone in our criminal justice system is innocent until proven guilty," she told an unrelated news conference on Tuesday.

"He wants to take a wrecking ball to the foundational principles of our civilization."