The federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergency Situations Act in connection with the convoy protests was unjustified, the court said

A federal judge said the Liberal government’s use of the National Emergencies Act in early 2022 to remove protesters from convoys was unjustified.

The case was brought by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Constitution Foundation, as well as individuals who argued that Ottawa had failed to meet the legal threshold, citing laws that had never been applied before.

Both groups made copies of the decisions available online.

Thousands of protesters angered by the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including vaccine requirements, descended on Ottawa in January 2022 and blocked border points elsewhere. Protesters parked large vehicles on key arteries in the capital for almost a month and blew their horns non-stop for days.

To declare a public order emergency, the Emergencies Act requires an “emergency situation resulting from threats to the security of Canada that are so serious as to constitute a national emergency.” The Act refers to the definition of “threats to Canada’s security” adopted by CSIS.

Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley said the situation caused by the protests did not meet that threshold.

“I have concluded that the decision to issue the Proclamation lacks the hallmarks of rationality – justification, transparency and understandability – and was not justified in light of the significant factual and legal constraints that should have been taken into account,” he said. in your decision.

More to come…