Article content continued

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

Now here’s the part people apparently find tricky. We have laws against illegal blockades. Courts have issued injunctions. So now the executive must enforce those injunctions. But how?

Pop quiz: Which branch of the government are police forces part of? Do they make laws? I should hope not. Do they decide cases? Ods fish no. So they must be in the executive branch. They must have the job of enforcing laws. As we all surely knew anyway.

Next pop quiz: Who heads the executive branch?

In Canada it might look like a trick question because formally it’s the Queen. But in practice it’s the First Minister. Which might look like a trick answer because in a federation there’s one First Minister provincially and another federally. But there’s no trick.

Provincial police report to the provincial Premier; federal police to the Prime Minister. Through channels, including Attorneys-General. But ultimately they must, because the relevant First Minister reports to the legislature which reports to us. If people with guns and badges are outside this chain of authority they are accountable to no one, inside or outside government. And we don’t want that and shouldn’t.

I sympathize with the police lament that firm action is denounced as brutality and caution as fecklessness

True, we don’t want politicians meddling in the day-to-day conduct of law enforcement. If they micromanage operationally it undermines effective policing, and if they give partisan direction it corrupts the rule of law. But the alternative is not for politicians never to say anything to the police.