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Emergency invoked by Trudeau govt in Feb 2022 not justified: Canadian court
The government of PM Justin Trudeau imposed emergency in February 2022 to counter anti-Covid-19 vaccination mandate protests by the so-called Freedom Convoy
Toronto: A federal court in Ottawa has deemed unjustified the decision of the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to impose a national emergency in February 2022 to counter anti-Covid-19 vaccination mandate protests by the so-called Freedom Convoy.
In a judgment delivered on Tuesday, Judge Richard G Mosley noted, “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.”
On February 14, 2022, as the agitation entered its 18th day, the government invoked the Emergency Act, which was enacted in 1988 and never used before.
While it was ratified in the House of Commons with the support of the New Democratic Party lead by Jagmeet Singh, it was revoked nine days later before being voted upon in the Senate. By then the extraordinary powers assumed by the government were used to remove protesters from Ottawa, where they had camped for over three weeks.
“”I conclude that there was no national emergency justifying the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the decision to do so was therefore unreasonable and ultra vires,” Justice Mosley wrote in the judgment.
The government will appeal the decision, as Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters, “We believed we were doing something necessary and something legal at the time.”
“That continues to be my belief today,” she added.
Invocation of the emergency was challenged in court by civil liberties groups, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Canadian Constitution Foundation and two participants in the protests who had their bank accounts frozen.
The opposition attacked Trudeau after the judgment was delivered, as Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre tweeted, “He caused the crisis by dividing people.”
Reacting to the decision, Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, executive director of CCLA said, “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.”
