The Federal Court of Canada has ruled that that the Trudeau government’s use of the Emergencies Act to shut down the Freedom Convoy protests two years ago was “not justified.”
Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley stated:
“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.”
The Justice added:
“The decision to issue the Proclamation was unreasonable and led to infringement of Charter rights not justified under section 1.”
Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader who is running to be Prime Minister of Canada, posted that Trudeau “caused the crisis by dividing people. Then he violated Charter rights to illegally suppress citizens. As PM, I will unite our country for freedom.”
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told media that Trudeau 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. The public safety of Canadians was under threat. Our national security, which includes our national economic security, was under threat.”
The public inquiry led by Commissioner Paul Rouleau had earlier found that Trudeau government met the threshold to invoke the act.
The case was brought to the Federal Court by the representatives of both the Canadian Constitution Foundation and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s lawyer Ewa Krajewska said in a statement on social media:
“The Federal Court found that the decision to declare the Emergencies Act was ultra vires and unreasonable and that the measures violated the Charter.”
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.
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