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A Major Turning Point: Federal Judge Rules Against Trudeau’s Use of Emergencies Act

January 24, 2024 Spotlight, Tyranny, WORLD 0

ER Editor: We recommend reading the full National Post report below. The presiding judge in the case at federal court level, Richard Mosley, had been involved with the government at the time the Emergencies Act was invoked by the government (2022), which left him inclined to take the government’s position in the current case. Presentation of arguments by several civil liberties groups, however, persuaded him that the government had indeed been unreasonable at the time and had gone beyond its powers. Important Twitter reaction worth checking out —

WORTH LISTENING TO

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Court rules Liberals’ use of Emergencies Act was unjustified, unreasonable

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Act in the wake of trucker convoy protests in downtown Ottawa in February 2022

OTTAWA – The Liberal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in response to the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests was unreasonable, unjustified and violated the Charter, the Federal Court has ruled.

In a lengthy ruling published Tuesday, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley found that though the Freedom Convoy protests in early 2022 were causing harm to Canada’s economy, trade and commerce, they did not rise to the level of a threat to national security as defined by the law.

Mosley sided with civil liberties groups who argued the Liberal government went beyond its powers, violated the Charter and was not justified in its historic invocation of the Emergencies Act in February 2022.“I have concluded that the decision to issue the Proclamation (of the Emergencies Act) does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness – justification, transparency and intelligibility – and was not justified,” Mosley wrote.
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On the same day, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government did not agree with Mosley’s decision and promised to appeal it.“The public safety of Canadians was under threat, our national security, which includes our national economic security, was under threat,” she said. “I was convinced at the time. It was the right thing to do. It was the necessary thing to do.”Mosley’s ruling stems from four legal challenges by civil liberty groups, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Canadian Constitutional Foundation (CCF).The groups argued the Liberals exceeded their powers when they invoked the Act on Feb. 14, 2022, in response to ongoing Freedom Convoy blockades in Ontario and Alberta.
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At the time, the Act was largely used to freeze some convoy participants’ bank accounts, compel tow truck companies to co-operate with local police clearing out blockades and mark parts of downtown Ottawa as a no-go zone.“Emergency is not in the eye of the beholder. Emergency powers are necessary in extreme circumstances, but they are also dangerous to democracy. They should be used sparingly and carefully. They cannot be used even to address a massive and disruptive demonstration if that could have been dealt with through regular policing and laws,” the CCLA said in a statement. In coming to his conclusion, the judge found that using the Act to create a no-go zone in downtown Ottawa to clear our protesters infringed on “peaceful” participants’ freedom of expression. He was also “concerned” about how government went about freezing some protesters’ bank accounts without concern for collateral effects, namely on family members and joint account holders. Thus, the measure breached their Charter right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure, he concluded.
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“Someone who had nothing to do with the protests could find themselves without the means to access necessaries for household and other family purposes while the accounts were suspended. There appears to have been no effort made to find a solution to that problem while the measures were in effect,” reads the ruling.

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The Emergencies Act relies on a definition of a threat to the security of Canada embedded in the legislation that governs CSIS. When justifying its invocation of the Act, the Liberals argued they had reasonable grounds to believe the protests posed a threat to national security and could not be dealt with in any other way.
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Mosley disagreed. “The record does not support a conclusion that the Convoy had created a critical, urgent and temporary situation that was national in scope and could not effectively be dealt with under any other law of Canada,” he wrote. “The harm being caused to Canada’s economy, trade and commerce, was very real and concerning but it did not constitute threats or the use of serious violence to persons or property,” he added.
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CONTINUE READING HERE

Featured image: ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES

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