Ottawa Appeals Emergencies Act Ruling to the Supreme Court

The federal government has launched an appeal with the Supreme Court of Canada to defend its use of the Emergencies Act in 2022 in response to the Freedom Convoy.

The Federal Court of Appeal in January rejected Ottawa’s appeal against a 2024 lower court decision after finding the lower court had “correctly determined” the declaration of a public order emergency was unreasonable and that parts of the order infringed on Charter rights related to the freedom of expression.

Ottawa filed an application on March 17 to have an appeal heard at the Supreme Court, arguing that the lower courts had incorrectly reviewed the use of the Emergencies Act, which the government said was used because it believed the Freedom Convoy protest of 2022 presented a threat to Canada’s national security.

Court Case

The court action was launched by some of the protesters and civil liberties groups who had argued that the federal government’s response violated Charter rights and that actions such as freezing protesters’ bank accounts were unwarranted.

The 2024 Federal Court ruling said the government’s use of the act wasn’t justified.

“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,” Justice Richard Mosley wrote in January 2024.

The Federal Court of Appeal judges ruled in January that while the convoy demonstrations in Ottawa and at some Canada-U.S. border crossings were “disruptive,” they fell “well short of a threat to national security.” The court said it found Ottawa did not have reasonable grounds to believe a threat to Canada’s national security existed.

The Appeal Court also said that while the protests had negative impact on commerce, it failed to see how the lives, health, or safety of Canadians were “seriously endangered” by the situation.

In communicating its decision to appeal the case to the country’s highest court, the federal government says the protests caused “serious disruptions across the country.”

“Our government remains committed to ensuring it has the tools needed to protect the safety and security of Canadians in the face of threats to public order and national security. Since this matter is now before the courts, it would not be appropriate to comment further,” a spokesperson for the federal justice department told The Epoch Times on March 17.

The federal government argues in its application to the Supreme Court that the lower courts made an error when concluding the requirement of a “national emergency” was not met.

Civil liberties organizations have argued in the court challenge brought on by the protesters that the government did not meet the legal threshold to invoke the legislation in response to the protest, saying Canadians’ Charter rights were violated.

The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF), one of the civil liberties groups involved in the court case, said it’s “disappointed” to learn that the government is appealing the court decision.

“The Emergencies Act was carefully crafted by Parliament to ensure that rights are suspended only in genuine emergencies,” Josh Dehaas, interim litigation director for the CCF, said in a statement.

Should the Supreme Court agree to hear the case, it will be overseen by nine justices, including Chief Justice Richard Wagner, who had told Quebec newspaper Le Devoir in 2022 that the Freedom Convoy protest was the “beginning of anarchy where certain people decided to take other citizens hostage, to take the law into their own hands.”

Convoy Protests

Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, 2022, to deal with the protests that began as a demonstration against mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for truckers crossing the Canada-U.S. border and later became a larger movement opposing various pandemic-related mandates and restrictions.

The Emergencies Act gave law enforcement sweeping powers to arrest demonstrators, ordered banks to freeze the accounts of some of the protesters, and compelled towing companies to remove protesters’ vehicles from downtown Ottawa. The act, which was revoked 10 days later on Feb. 23, also made it illegal to attend any event deemed an unlawful assembly, such as the protest in downtown Ottawa.

A public inquiry headed by commissioner Paul Rouleau held shortly after to determine whether the government was justified in using the act concluded that the cabinet met the “very high” threshold to invoke the act.

Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.