OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre laid down a historic marker Tuesday with a promise to invoke the notwithstanding clause to shield criminal justice reforms from being overturned in the courts.
Poilievre pledged to invoke the Charter’s Section 33 — something that has never been done at the federal level — to reverse a Supreme Court decision that criminals can’t be locked up more than 25 years before being eligible for parole.
After raising the idea while speaking to the Canadian Police Association on Monday , Poilievre told reporters on Tuesday that the promise would keep murderers like Alexandre Bissonnette, the gunman who killed six people in a Quebec City mosque in 2017, behind bars for life.
