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:

    “The peace conference must not adjourn without the establishment of some ordered system of international government, backed by power enough to give authority to its decrees. ... Unless a league something like this results at our peace conference, we shall merely drop back into armed hostility and international anarchy. The war will have been fought in vain ...”
    —Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877–1965)

    “Away with the cant of “Measures, not men!”Mthe idle supposition that it is the harness and not the horses that draw the chariot along. No, Sir, if the comparison must be made, if the distinction must be taken, men are everything, measures comparatively nothing.”
    —George Canning (1770–1827)

    “The last act is bloody, however pleasant all the rest of the play is: a little earth is thrown at last upon our head, and that is the end forever.”
    —Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)