From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

“Legal thresholds do not bend, much less break, in exigent circumstances. We are putting this and future governments on notice: even in times of crisis, no government is above the law”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is again in court to claim its use of the Emergencies Act to stop the 2022 Freedom Convoy was warranted, in appeal of a ruling from last year which found its use of the act was unjustified.   

Today, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) noted in a press release that it is before the Federal Court of Appeal “to defend its historic victory for the rule of law.” 

“While the extraordinary powers granted to the federal government through the Emergencies Act are necessary in extreme circumstances, they also threaten the rule of law and our democracy,” said Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, who serves as the Director of the Fundamental Freedoms program at the CCLA. 

McNicoll said that the CCLA will be urging the “Federal Court of Appeal to reject the federal government’s attempt to relax the thresholds necessary for invoking the  Act’s extraordinary powers.” 

“Legal thresholds do not bend, much less break, in exigent circumstances. We are putting this and future governments on notice: even in times of crisis, no government is above the law,” concluded McNicoll. 

In January of 2024, Canada’s Federal Court announced that the use of the EA by the Trudeau government in early 2022 to shut down Freedom Convoy, which was calling for an end to COVID mandates, was a direct violation of the nation’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and thus was “not justified” and “infringed” on the rights of protesters.

The January 2024 decision by Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley saw the judge write, “Having found that the infringements of Charter sections 2(b) and 8 were not minimally impairing, I find that they were not justified under section 1.” 

Shortly after the court ruling, the Trudeau government announced that it would appeal Mosley’s ruling, claiming the federal court “erred in fact and law in declaring that the Regulations infringed subsection 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” 

Notably, in the Federal Court of Appeal, where the case is now being heard, 10 out of the 15 judges were appointed by Trudeau.     

The CCLA said that the government’s use of the EA “which had never been invoked before in Canada,” allowed the federal government to “enact wide-reaching orders without going through the ordinary democratic process—but only once stringent legal thresholds are met.” 

In early 2022, the Freedom Convoy saw thousands of Canadians from coast to coast come to Ottawa to demand an end to COVID mandates in all forms. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Trudeau’s government enacted the EA on February 14, 2022. 

During the clear-out of protesters after the EA was put in place, one protester, an elderly lady, was trampled by a police horse, and one conservative female reporter was beaten by police and shot with a tear gas canister. 

Trudeau revoked the EA on February 23. 

In the lead-up to the protest, Trudeau had disparaged unvaccinated Canadians, saying those opposing his measures were of a “small, fringe minority” who hold “unacceptable views” and do not “represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other.”      

In another Freedom Convoy court battle, protest leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber underwent a year-long criminal trial which concluded last September.

Both Lich and Barber will have their verdicts announced on March 12, 2025, as LifeSiteNews has reported.

Lich and Barber face a possible 10-year prison sentence for a slew of non-violent crimes, details of which LifeSiteNews has reported on extensively.

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The suspension without pay for Staff Sergeant Richard Abbott of the Edmonton Police Service was out of line and not at all ‘justifiable,’ Justice James Nelson of Alberta Court of King’s Bench ruled.

A policeman from Alberta won a decisive court victory after a judge overturned a ruling against him by his superiors that suspended him without pay because he spoke at a Freedom Convoy rally in 2022.

Justice James Nelson of Alberta Court of King’s Bench recently ruled that the punishment for Staff Sergeant Richard Abbott of the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) was out of line and not at all “justifiable.”

“While taking into account the higher standards placed by law on a police officer that can limit the officer’s freedom of expression compared to the freedom enjoyed by other citizens, we are left in my view with factual distinctions that could be drawn from the evidence,” Nelson wrote in his ruling.

The judge also noted that the “facts and evidence” in the case were not clear in justifying the suspension.

Abbott was a 26-year police veteran with a clean record and “no prior disciplinary misconduct.”

His suspension came in 2022 after he gave a videotaped speech at a local Freedom Convoy rally, of which many were being held at the time in solidarity with the truckers who descended upon Ottawa in protest of COVID dictates of all kinds.

Abbott opposed COVID jab mandates and was sympathetic to the peaceful Freedom Convoy movement.

Judge Nelson agreed with Abbott’s statements and overturned his suspension.

The now former EPS Chief Dale McFee cited Abbott with breach of Police Service Regulations, saying his actions for speaking in favor of the protests were “conduct of engaging in the political activity of the Freedom Convoy, which “interferes with and adversely influence decisions you are required to make in the performance of your duties.”

McFee claimed that Abbott’s actions undermined the EPS as well as his “colleagues” to ensure “proportionate and correct decisions are being made when dealing with protesters so our community is safe and secure.”

“Your actions also created a conflict of interest by using your status as a police officer in an attempt to further the cause of the Freedom Convoy. By publicly supporting a cause where the activities of this group involve illegal activities, this undermines public confidence that police will behave impartially,” McFee wrote.

The reality is the EPS had mistakenly claimed Abbott had attended a large border protest in Coutts, Alberta.

In court, Abbott was successful in arguing that the videotape of him was from a protest nowhere near Coutts and was instead in Milk River and that he never spoke in favor of the border blockade protests.

In early 2022, thousands of Canadians from coast to coast came to Ottawa to demand an end to COVID mandates in all forms. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Trudeau’s government invoked the Emergencies Act (EA) on February 14. Trudeau revoked the order on February 23.

The EA controversially allowed the government to freeze the bank accounts of protesters, conscript tow truck drivers, and arrest people for participating in assemblies the government deemed illegal.

Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, the main leaders of the Freedom Convoy, as reported by LifeSiteNews, will receive their verdict on March 12.

They both face a possible 10-year prison sentence. LifeSiteNews has reported extensively on their trial.