War Measures Act

The War Measures Act (5 George V, Chap. 2) 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:

  • the First World War,
  • the Second World War, and
  • the 1970 October Crisis.

Read more about War Measures Act:  First World War, Second World War, The October Crisis, Civil Liberties, Replacement

Famous quotes containing the words war, measures and/or act:

    “... it is a commonplace that men like war. For peace, in our society, with the feeling we have then that it is feeble-minded to strive except for one’s own private profit, is a lonely thing and a hazardous business. Over and over men have proved that they prefer the hazards of war with all its suffering. It has its compensations.”
    —Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)

    “Him the Almighty Power
    Hurld headlong flaming from th’ Ethereal Skie
    With hideous ruine and combustion down
    To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
    In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
    Who durst defie th’ Omnipotent to Arms.
    Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night
    To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
    Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe”
    —John Milton (1608–1674)

    “Eminent spiritualists shall have an incapacity of putting their act or word aloof from them, and seeing it bravely for the nothing it is. Beware of the man who says, “I am on the eve of a revelation.””
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)