Civil liberties

Canadian Court: Govt. Emergency Powers in Trucker Protests 'Not Justified'

JAN 24 2024·Updated JAN 29 2024

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Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Image News via Getty Images

The Facts

A federal court in Canada found that the Canadian government's use of the Emergencies Act during the 2022 trucker protests against COVID health mandates was "not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration." Justice Richard Mosley further ruled that the government's actions were "unreasonable" and violated Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
guardian
In response, Finance Minister [and Deputy Prime Minister] Chrystia Freeland said that while the government "respect[s] very much Canada's independent judiciary," it disagrees with the ruling and "will be appealing it." She claimed the decision to invoke the emergency powers — which ranged from making arrests to the impounding of trucks to freezing the funds of suspected convoy financiers — was to protect public safety and national security.
Reuters
In early 2022, truckers — in response to COVID vaccine mandates — jammed downtown Ottawa for three weeks and barricaded some critical US-Canada border crossings. On Feb. 14 of that year, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in history.
CTVNews
The invocation of the Act was previously upheld by an Ontario Court of Appeal Judge last February — a public inquiry that was mandated by law. That judge ruled the use of the emergency law was acceptable given a breakdown of police responses and limited political coordination.
The New York Times
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Canadian Constitution Foundation, alongside two individuals whose bank accounts were frozen under the emergency law, filed this latest case in federal court. Justice Mosley agreed with the plaintiffs, ruling that while "there was a rational connection between freezing the accounts" and stopping the convoy's funding, the economic orders were "overbroad."
CBC
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc also cited the discovery of "two pipe bombs and 36,000 rounds of munition" as reasons for the federal government to step in, but Mosley said those threats should have been dealt with by provincial and local authorities.
CBC

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The Spin

Left narrative

If the trucker convoy wasn't a threat to national security then nothing is. Not only did this far-right, reactionary operation threaten the Canadian economy by blocking border crossings consisting of 25% of US-Canada trade, but some of the truckers had large amounts of weapons and ammunition. The previous public inquiry was correct, and hopefully, the next appeal will come to the same logical conclusion.

ABC News

Right narrative

This ruling is a win for democracy and the first step to holding Trudeau accountable. The invocation of the Emergencies Act was completely unconstitutional —while protesters were merely exercising their rights to oppose extraordinary public health mandates, the government responded with an assault on civil liberties. Labeling all protesters far-right reactionaries is a deliberate distortion of the truth to justify an authoritarian crackdown.

The Post Millennial