Legal Research

Evacuation?

By Mark Lewis

Following the adventures which took place in the Halifax region that started a week ago today (on Friday the 13th), I became interested in the legalities of a mandatory evacuation order. Emergencies in Canada are covered by the Emergencies Act, R.S.C. 1985, c.22 4th Supp. Provincial acts apply as well, in Nova Scotia the Emergency Management Act, S.N.S. 1990, c.8. Each act, delegates power to the R.C.M.P. or police as the case might be, to implement the measures specified under the act, including evacuation orders. What I’m not clear on, is that neither act I’ve looked at, Federal or N.S. specifies how notification of an evacuation order is to be given and what method might be the official method. The reason I ask these questions is that the only location where I have been able to find any mention of the evacuation order given in Nova Scotia last weekend are through news outlets. A search of the R.C.M.P. website does not reveal the evacuation order. Nor does a google search, reveal where the evacuation order may have come from, other than news outlets of many different stripes. And nowhere in either act is the phrase “mandatory evacuation order” defined or mentioned, as that is a phrase that was used liberally in the order given last weekend in Nova Scotia.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on June 20, 2008 (boomark / email).