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:

In the First World War, a state of war with Germany was declared by the United Kingdom on behalf of the entire British Empire. Canada was notified by telegraphic despatch accordingly, effective 4 August 1914, and that status remained in effect until 10 January 1920.

The War Measures Act, 1914 was subsequently adopted on 22 August 1914 to ratify all steps taken by Canada from the declaration of war, to continue until the war was over. Sections 2 to 6 of the original Act in particular provided for the following:

Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920 involved the internment of both genuine POWs and thousands of civilians, most of them Ukrainians who had come from western Ukrainian lands (Galicia and Bukovyna) then held by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Branded as "enemy aliens," they were stripped of what little wealth they had, forced to work for the profit of their jailers and subjected to other state sanctioned censures, including disenfranchisement (War Time Elections Act, 1917). A campaign begun by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (www.uccla.ca) in 1985 aimed at securing official acknowledgement and symbolic restitution for what happened succeeded in 2008, following passage of a private member's Bill C 331 (Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act), resulting in the establishment of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (www.internmentcanada.ca).

Alfred Alan Borovoy, OC (born 1932) is a Canadian lawyer best known as the general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA).

He received a Bachelor of Arts in 1953 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1956 from the University of Toronto. He has been awarded four honorary doctorates. He was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1958. In 1960, Borovoy started working as secretary of the Jewish Labour Committee in Toronto fighting racism against minority groups in Toronto, particularly Black Canadians. In 1968, he became general counsel for the CCLA, a position he held until his retirement on 1 July 2009[1]

He is the author of The New Anti-Liberals, Uncivil Obedience: The Tactics and Tales of a Democratic Agitator and When Freedoms Collide: The Case for Our Civil Liberties, which was nominated for the 1988 Governor General's Awards. His latest book, Categorically Incorrect: Ethical fallacies in Canada's war on terror was released in early 2007.

In 1982, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Justin Pierre James Trudeau, MP (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician. He has represented the Montreal electoral division of Papineau in the Canadian House of Commons since 2008 as a member of the Liberal Party and currently serves as the party's critic for youth, post-secondary education, and amateur sport.

Trudeau is the eldest son of the late former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Sinclair Trudeau Kemper. His maternal grandfather, James Sinclair, was also a federal cabinet minister.

Trudeau was born on December 25, 1971, in Ottawa, Ontario. He was only the second child in Canadian history to be born when one of his parents was prime minister; the first was John A. Macdonald's youngest daughter Margaret Mary Macdonald, and Trudeau's younger brothers Alexandre (Sacha) (born December 25, 1973) and Michel (1975–98) were the third and fourth, respectively. Pierre and Margaret Trudeau separated in 1977, when Justin was six years old, and Pierre retired as prime minister in 1984. Of his mother and father's marriage, Trudeau said in 2009, "They loved each other incredibly, passionately, completely. But there was 30 years between them and my mom never was an equal partner in what encompassed my father's life, his duty, his country."