The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) announced a new legal victory on the anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy..“The government had tools other than the Emergencies Act. We are arguing in court it did not meet the high legal threshold to invoke the act. There was a blockade in Ottawa that needed to be addressed, but the government did not need new tools to do so," said Cara Zwibel, director of Fundamental Freedoms for the CCLA..“And certainly, it did not need to infringe on the civil liberties of all Canadians to solve the problem.".While the CCLA participated in the Public Order Emergency Commission, tasked with determining whether the federal government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act, the CCLA also took the federal government to court, filing an application for judicial review..After the commission concluded, the CCLA applied to introduce evidence from the commission into its court case. Despite the federal government contesting this move, a judge has now ruled in the CCLA’s favour, meaning select evidence from the commission will now be considered on judicial review..With no protests planned for Parliament Hill or Ottawa to mark the one-year anniversary of the Emergencies Act, Zwibel said “this is probably something that most would probably prefer to forget.”.“I’m not too surprised that people aren’t marking the occasion,” Zwibel said..Zwibel said the CCLA does not believe there was a threat to the security of Canada that arose to the level of a national emergency, meaning cabinet was not justified in invoking the act in response to the convoy. She said the invocation lead to “severe restrictions on the freedom to peacefully assemble” and protestors having their assets frozen with no due process..“Those are extraordinary powers … there is a good reason why we set a high threshold in the act," Zwibel said. “This is a dark anniversary for civil liberties in Canada and will not be forgotten."
