Federal Court of Canada Justice Richard Mosley — a Liberal appointee who ruled the Freedom Convoy crackdown was unconstitutional — said civil rights lawyers changed his mind about the case, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “At the outset of these proceedings, while I had not reached a decision on any of the four applications, I was leaning to the view the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act was reasonable,” said Mosley in a ruling. “I considered the events that occurred in Ottawa and other locations in January and February 2022 went beyond legitimate protest and reflected an unacceptable breakdown of public order.”The Federal Court ruled on Tuesday the decision to use the War Measures (Emergencies) Act to respond to the Freedom Convoy was unreasonable and excessive, validating the claims made in a lawsuit brought by various civil liberties groups. READ MORE: UPDATED: Federal Court declares War Measures (Emergencies) Act usage against Freedom Convoy wrong“It is declared that the Regulations infringed Section 2b) of the Charter and declared that the Order infringed Section 8 of the Charter and that neither infringement was justified under Section 1,” said the Federal Court. “There is no award of costs.”.When it comes to the politicians who decided to invoke the Emergencies Act, Mosley said he had and continues to have sympathy for them. “Had I been at their tables at that time, I may have agreed it was necessary to invoke the Act,” he said. He is a long-time Ottawan and former Crown attorney. He served as assistant deputy minister under former justice minister Anne McLellan prior to his appointment to the Federal Court in 2003. With this judicial review, he said he is revisiting the Freedom Convoy with the benefit of hindsight and a more extensive record of the facts and law than what was known before. He added his preliminary review of the reasonableness of the decision might have prevailed “had I not taken the time to carefully deliberate about the evidence and submissions, particularly those of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Canadian Constitution Foundation.”“Their participation in these proceedings has demonstrated again the value of public interest litigants, especially in presenting informed legal argument,” he said. “This case may not have turned out the way it has without their involvement.”This ruling represented a last stand by Freedom Convoy advocates. The House of Commons upheld using the War Measures (Emergencies) Act by a 185 to 151 vote in 2022. The Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency remains stalemated without any final report. A judicial inquiry upheld the cabinet action as reasonable in February.
