The Canadian Civil Liberties Association claims the onus is on the Liberal government to justify the extraordinary police powers used against the Freedom Convoy. .“The government has yet to prove the legal threshold to invoke the act was met,” said Carla Zwibel, director of the Association. “The burden is on them, not the other way around. That is what we will be focusing on at the commission.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, cabinet last February 14 invoked the act to freeze bank accounts of protesters and permit the pre-emptive arrests of sympathizers attempting to join public demonstrations against vaccine mandates. Some 230 people were arrested and $7.8 million in accounts were frozen..The Public Order Emergency Commission is convening in Ottawa today. Authorities yesterday confirmed the proceedings will be live streamed then archived on the Commission website, and any documents made public at hearings will be posted for the public to view..Zwibel said cabinet “had an obligation to comply with the law and use emergency powers as a truly last resort.” The association last February 18 filed a challenge of the Emergencies Act in Federal Court. A ruling is currently pending..“Are you satisfied the witnesses that are listed and the set-up of the commission is actually going to get to the heart of the question?” asked a reporter..“I don’t know yet,” replied Zwibel. “We have to see what happens during the course of the public hearings.”.“How confident are you in the government’s commitment to transparency?” asked another reporter..“I do have concerns about the level of transparency the federal government has been displaying throughout this process,” replied Zwibel..Zwibel said she wants to know if there were genuine concerns about threats to national security or if the government was "largely concerned about the economic impact of the blockade?.“What evidence supported the government’s view there was a threat to security?" she asked..Zwibel said she suspected the Liberal government invoking the act not as a proportional response to a legitimate threat, but was meant to frighten Freedom Convoy sympathizers..“The government may have used the confusion that the breadth of those orders engendered to their benefit,” she said..“I think Canadians weren’t sure about, ‘If I’m donating money are my assets going to be frozen?’” said Zwibel. “That's something Canadians were unsure about. I don’t think the government took much time to really clarify that because I think the goal was they wanted to stop people from donating."."They wanted to stop people from contributing to these causes. They wanted to stop people from protesting, even protesting that didn’t interfere in the way many of the Ottawa protests did.”.Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino repeatedly claimed cabinet acted on the recommendation of police when it invoked the Emergencies Act..“We did so on the basis of non-partisan professional advice from law enforcement,” Mendicino told the Commons last February 28..To date no police have corroborated Mendicino’s claim.
