The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) and Citizens for Freedom (CF) have full participatory standing at the Emergencies Act (EA) inquiry, where they share a seat..Commissioner Paul Rouleau granted the shared seat and said the JCCF and CF “dispatched lawyers to Ottawa to provide pro bono legal advice to protesters. It also represented individuals identified as forming the leadership of the Freedom Convoy.”.The EA inquiry is looking into how the federal government handled the February trucker convoy and protest in Ottawa, and at border crossings across Canada..JCCF lawyer Hatim Kheir said that many of the stories about the protesters were disproven and the use of the EA was unprecedented..“The use of the Emergencies Act to disperse protesters is unprecedented,” said Kheir. .“Many stories circulated at the time which were used to justify the declaration of emergency have since been disproven. This inquiry is an opportunity to make the truth about the freedom convoy public and hold the government accountable.”.The JCCF provided the Western Standard with three examples of claims “which have since been disproven or otherwise retracted.”.The first is a CBC story about arson at an Ottawa apartment building where the mayor and a city councillor connected the fire to the protesters, but it was determined there was no connection after a police investigation..READ MORE Arson attempt during Freedom Convoy appears to have no connection to protesters.Secondly, Minister Marco Mendicino’s said the police advised the government to invoke the EA and it has come out that no police force asked for the EA to be invoked..READ MORE Poilievre calls on 'incompetent, dishonest' public safety minister to resign.The third story was the CBC reported that the Freedom Convoy was largely foreign-funded, which turned out to be false as 88% of the donations came from Canadians..READ MORE No large foreign convoy donors found, crowdfunding executives testify.The federal government used the Emergencies Act to issue a public order emergency on February 14, 2022, that remained in effect until February 23, 2022..The EA requires within 60 days that an inquiry be started to look into the emergency declaration. .On April 25, 2022, an order in council established the mandatory Public Order Emergency Commission..The JCCF and CF have a seat at the counsel table with the ability to “make evidentiary, factual, and legal submissions, submit policy papers, suggest and cross-examine witnesses, and/or participate in policy round tables and deliberations.”.The JCCF has over 10 years of being an outspoken defender of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms with firsthand experience on the ground at protests.
