Ottawa's use of Emergencies Act against convoy protests was unreasonable, violated Charter, court rules

A federal judge says the Liberal government's use of the Emergencies Act in early 2022 to clear convoy protesters was unreasonable and infringed on protesters' Charter rights.

«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 ,» Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley wrote in a Tuesday decision. «Ultra vires» is a Latin term used by courts to refer to actions beyond the scope of the law.

The federal government says it already plans to appeal.

The Federal Court case was argued by two national groups, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Constitution Foundation, and two people whose bank accounts were frozen. They argued Ottawa did not meet the legal threshold when it invoked the legislation, which had never been used before.

The federal government invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, 2022 after thousands of protesters angry with the Liberals' response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccine requirements, gridlocked downtown Ottawa for nearly a month and blocked border points elsewhere across the country. The protests gained international attention for bringing parts of the capital city to a halt.

The act gave law enforcement extraordinary powers to remove and arrest protesters and gave the government the power to freeze the finances of those connected to the protests. The temporary emergency powers also gave authorities the ability to commandeer tow trucks to remove protesters' vehicles from the streets of the capital.

The Emergencies Act says that a public order emergency can be declared only in response to «an emergency that arises from threats to the security of Canada that are so serious as to