{"id":414230,"date":"2026-01-17T00:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T00:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/414230\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T00:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T00:37:13","slug":"use-of-emergencies-act-to-stop-freedom-convoy-unreasonable-appeal-court-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/414230\/","title":{"rendered":"Use of Emergencies Act to stop \u2018Freedom Convoy\u2019 unreasonable: appeal court – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Federal Court of Appeal on Friday ruled that the federal government\u2019s use of the Emergencies Act<\/a> to quell the 2022 \u201cFreedom Convoy<\/a>\u201d protests was unreasonable.<\/p>\n

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The ruling upheld a 2024 decision by the Federal Court that also concluded there was \u201cno national emergency justifying the invocation of the Emergencies Act\u201d in response to the weeks-long blockade in downtown Ottawa.<\/p>\n

The national movement also involved truck blockades at key border crossings to the United States, which prompted then-prime minister Justin Trudeau to declare a national emergency \u201carising from threats to Canada\u2019s security.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Federal Court correctly determined that the declaration of a public order emergency was unreasonable,\u201d the appeal court ruling said.<\/p>\n

The appeal court also agreed with the lower court that invoking the emergency powers led to the infringement of constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

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Both rulings sided with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Constitution Foundation, which brought the case against the government on free speech and assembly grounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision provides some guidance and some guardrails in terms of interpreting the legislation, refining the understanding of it,\u201d CCLA executive director Howard Sapers said during a media conference Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe act could still be used and a government could still try to abuse it, but at least now there\u2019s some there\u2019s some precedent decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not clear Friday whether the federal government would seek leave to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.<\/p>\n

Simon Lafortune, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, said the government was reviewing the ruling and assessing next steps.<\/p>\n

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He said the government \u201cremains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring the safety and security of Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tHow the case has evolved since 2022\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

For about three weeks in January and February 2022, downtown Ottawa was filled with protesters, including many in large trucks that blocked streets around Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n

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Trucks also jammed important cross-border trade routes at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., as well as in Coutts, Alta.<\/p>\n

While many people demonstrated against COVID-19 health restrictions, including vaccine requirements for truck drivers and other groups, the gathering attracted some with a variety of grievances against Trudeau and his government.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 14, 2022, the government invoked the\u00a0Emergencies\u00a0Act, which allowed for temporary measures, including regulation and prohibition of public assemblies, the designation of secure places, direction to banks to freeze assets, and a ban on support for participants.<\/p>\n

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It was the first time the law had been used since it replaced the War Measures\u00a0Act\u00a0in 1988.<\/p>\n

The Public Order Emergency Commission, which carried out a mandatory review after the use of the\u00a0act, concluded in early 2023 that the federal government had met the very high legal standard for using the law.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFeds justified in using Emergencies Act during \u2018Freedom Convoy\u2019: final report\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

At the public inquiry and in court proceedings, the CCLA and several other groups and individuals argued that Ottawa lacked sound statutory grounds to usher in the emergency measures.<\/p>\n

The government contended the steps taken to deal with the turmoil were targeted, proportional and time-limited, and complied with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.<\/p>\n

Public sector groups and nurses unions in Ottawa also pointed to the disturbances caused by blaring horns from big rigs, diesel fumes, makeshift encampments and even a hot tub and bouncy castle set up in the protest zone near Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n

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The influx of people, including some with roots in the far-right movement, prompted many businesses to temporarily shut down and aggravated residents with noise, pollution and harassing behaviour.<\/p>\n

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Richard Mosley, the judge who heard the case in Federal Court, concluded the federal decision to issue the emergency proclamation did not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness \u2014 justification, transparency and intelligibility \u2014 and was not supported in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints.<\/p>\n

The federal government appealed the decision.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanadian court finds use of Emergencies Act was \u2018unreasonable\u2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lawyer Michael Feder, representing the government, told the Federal Court of Appeal last February it was unfair of the judge to fault federal decision-making using \u201c20\/20 hindsight.\u201d<\/p>\n

That hindsight came during \u201cthe peaceful de-escalation that occurred in light of the emergency measures now being impugned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWho, outside of a courtroom, would seriously suggest the situation was going to get better in the absence of emergency measures?\u201d<\/p>\n

Feder said the government concluded it had reasonable grounds to believe the statutory preconditions for invoking the emergency measures were met.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s conclusion \u201cdoesn\u2019t have to be perfect,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just has to be reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The three-judge Federal Court of Appeal panel said that as disturbing and disruptive as the blockades and the \u201cFreedom\u00a0Convoy\u201d protests in Ottawa could be, \u201cthey fell well short of a threat to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Court of Appeal said this was borne out by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service\u2019s own assessment, and the judges pointed to the fact that although an alternative threat assessment was requested, the Emergencies Act was invoked before it could be completed.<\/p>\n

The Emergencies Act defines a national emergency as an urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature that seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians, exceeds the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it and cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.<\/p>\n

The Court of Appeal concluded the government \u201cdid not have reasonable grounds to believe that a national emergency existed,\u201d taking into account the wording of the act, its constitutional underpinning and the record that was before it at the time the decision was made.<\/p>\n

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The judges said the failure to meet the requirements to declare a public order emergency led them to conclude the federal proclamation \u201cwas unreasonable\u201d and exceeded the bounds of legal authority.<\/p>\n

Multiple organizers of the \u201cFreedom Convoy\u201d protest were found guilty last year of mischief and other charges for their roles in the mass demonstration. Two of those organizers, Tamara Lynch and Chris Barber, are appealing their convictions.<\/p>\n

Organizers and other prominent figures in the Coutts border blockade have also been convicted on mischief charges in Alberta, where courts have dismissed attempts to appeal.<\/p>\n

\u2014with files from the Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Court of Appeal on Friday ruled that the federal government\u2019s use of the Emergencies Act to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,174166,97539,43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-414230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-canada","tag-emergencies-act","tag-freedom-convoy","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}