The Federal Court says that the government’s use of the Emergencies Act to shut down the so-called Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa two years ago was “not justified.”
Representatives of both the Canadian Constitution Foundation and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association — the two groups who brought the case to the Federal Court — posted about the ruling on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The protests gridlocked downtown Ottawa for three weeks and blockaded some key Canada-U.S. border crossings in early 2022 in opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
“I have concluded that the decision to issue the Proclamation does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness – justification, transparency and intelligibility – and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration,” stated Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley.
Mosley added that “there can be only one reasonable interpretation” of the Emergencies Act and CSIS Act, and that he believes “the legal constraints on the discretion of the GIC to declare a public order emergency were not satisfied.”
“This case was not about the constitutionality of the (Emergencies Act) but, rather, how it was applied in this instance,” Mosley clarified.
Canadian government to appeal: Freeland
At a press conference from the cabinet retreat in Montreal on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the federal government plans to appeal the decision.
“I would just like to take a moment to remind Canadians of how serious the situation was in our country when we took that decision,” she said. “The public safety of Canadians was under threat. Our national security, which includes our national economic security, was under threat.”
“It was a hard decision to take,” she added. “We took it very seriously after a lot of hard work after a lot of careful deliberation. We were convinced at the time — I was convinced at the time — it was the right thing to do, it was the necessary thing to do.”
“I remain and we remain convinced of that,” she continued.
The public inquiry led by Commissioner Paul Rouleau last year found Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met the threshold to invoke the act.
This is a breaking news story. More details to come.
