Con­sti­tu­tion­al at­tor­ney Gre­go­ry Delzin has warned that “be­hav­iour” can­not be used as the le­gal ba­sis for de­clar­ing an­oth­er State of Emer­gency (SoE), as de­bate in­ten­si­fies over Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s threat to reim­pose emer­gency pow­ers if vi­o­lence re­sumes.

While Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­tains the con­sti­tu­tion­al au­thor­i­ty to pro­claim an­oth­er SoE, Delzin said the law re­quires the ex­is­tence of an emer­gency sit­u­a­tion and does not per­mit de­c­la­ra­tions based sole­ly on whether crim­i­nals “be­have them­selves.”

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Delzin said the Con­sti­tu­tion does not pro­hib­it suc­ces­sive States of Emer­gency but in­sist­ed that each must be jus­ti­fied by fresh cir­cum­stances that en­dan­ger pub­lic safe­ty.