COVID-19
Trudeau government back in court to appeal ruling against its use of the Emergencies Act
From LifeSiteNews
“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
The Ontario Court of Appeals is allowing a $290 million class-action lawsuit against Freedom Convoy protesters to continue.
On March 6, Ontario Court of Appeals Justices David Brown, Peter Lauwers, and Steve Coroza ruled that a $290 million class-action lawsuit against some of those who organized and participated in the Freedom Convoy for creating a “public nuisance causing pain” will be allowed to proceed.
“We are not unconstrained free actors but must all live subject to some rules,” Brown wrote.
“The Charter reminds us that individual action must always be alive to its effect on other members of the community since limits can be placed on individual action as long as they are ’reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society,” he continued.
The 2022 Freedom Convoy was a peaceful protest in downtown Ottawa, featuring thousands of truckers and Canadians camping outside Parliament to call for an end to COVID regulations.
Despite the demonstration’s non-violent nature, some residents from downtown Ottawa have claimed that the protest disrupted their lives.
In February 2022, the Freedom Convoy leaders were hit with the lawsuit, which originally started at $9.8 million but then ballooned to $290 million. The class-action lawsuit was filed by Ottawa civil servant Zexi Li on February 4, 2022, along with Geoffrey Delaney, Happy Goat Coffee Company, and a local union. It names plaintiffs who have businesses or were working in the city’s downtown core during the Freedom Convoy.
The defendants of the claim are Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber along with a number of other participants and entities. A previous attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed was rejected.
The decision comes just over a year after Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that Prime Minister Trudeau was “not justified” in invoking the Emergencies Act to shut down the protest.
From LifeSiteNews
Both Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber face up to 10 years in prison for their roles in the non-violent Freedom Convoy protest which sought to bring an end to COVID mandates in Canada.
The verdict for Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber’s mischief trial, which was supposed to have already been released, will now come on April 3.
“We have a new verdict date. April 3,” Lich wrote on X Monday.
At the end of last month, Lich broke the news that the original verdict date of March 12, 2025, had been delayed indefinitely.
Both Lich and Barber face a possible 10-year prison sentence despite the non-violent nature of the protest. LifeSiteNews has reported extensively on their trial.
Lich recently shared a heartwarming letter she received from a child, who told her to “keep fighting” for everyone and that “God will protect” her from the “enemy.”
The Lich and Barber trial concluded in September of 2024, more than a year after it began. It was only originally scheduled to last 16 days.
Lich and Barber were arrested on February 17, 2022, in Ottawa for their roles in leading the popular Freedom Convoy protest against COVID mandates. During COVID, Canadians were subjected to vaccine mandates, mask mandates, extensive lockdowns and even the closure of churches.
Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act to clear-out protesters, an action a federal judge has since said was “not justified.” During the clear-out, an elderly lady was trampled by a police horse and many who donated to the cause had their bank accounts frozen.
While Trudeau has now been replaced as Liberal Party leader by Mark Carney, the latter is on the record as having been in favor of the freezing of bank accounts of Freedom Convoy protesters and their supporters.
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