Katana VentraIP

War Measures Act

The War Measures Act (French: Loi sur les mesures de guerre; 5 George V, Chap. 2)[1] was a statute of the Parliament of Canada that provided for the declaration of war, invasion, or insurrection, and the types of emergency measures that could thereby be taken. The Act was brought into force three times in Canadian history: during the First World War, Second World War, and the 1970 October Crisis.

Not to be confused with the Wartime Measure Act of 1918 or the Wartime Elections Act

War Measures Act

5 George V, Chap. 2
RSC 1985 c. W-2

Parliament of Canada

August 22, 1914

July 21, 1988

The Act was questioned for its suspension of civil liberties and personal freedoms, including only for Ukrainians and other Europeans during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914–1920, the Second World War's Japanese Canadian internment, and in the October Crisis.[2] In 1988, it was repealed and replaced by the Emergencies Act.

On 17 December 1941, persons of Japanese descent were required to register with the .[18]

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

On 29 January 1942, a protected area was declared by Government Notice within British Columbia.

[19]

On 24 February, the were amended to restrict Japanese Canadians from owning land or growing crops.[20]

Defence of Canada Regulations

On 26 February, a notice was issued instituting curfews on Japanese Canadians in the protected area of British Columbia, and restricting them from possessing motor vehicles, cameras, radios, firearms, ammunition or explosives.

[21]

On 4 March, regulations under the Act were adopted to forcibly remove Japanese Canadians from the protected area. As a result, 12,000 were interned in interior camps, 2,000 were sent to road camps and another 2,000 were forced to work in the prairies at sugar beet farms.[23]

[22]

actions taken under the Act were deemed not to be infringements of the latter statute, and

proclamations to bring the Act into force were subject to abrogation by both the and the House of Commons.[25]

Senate

Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Canada

Trudeau's Darkest Hour: War Measures in Time of Peace, Baraka Books, Montreal, 2010, 212 p.  978-1926824048.

ISBN

Text of Act

"War Measures Act Debate Oct 16, 1970" from the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation

Internment Camps in World War I and World War II in British Columbia

Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association

Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund