On to round three.Last week, the Supreme Court of Canada granted leave to hear an appeal of the Federal Court of Appeal decision that found the Trudeau government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act had violated Charter rights of freedom of expression and security against unreasonable search and seizure. The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) supports that position and will be a primary challenger in court.Earlier this year, the Federal Court of Appeal — like the Federal Court before it — found that Trudeau’s cabinet had failed to meet the strict legal threshold necessary to unilaterally proclaim a national public order emergency in 2022. This unleashed extraordinary powers, including the passing of criminal laws by executive order. The government then froze bank accounts without judicial authorization and banned peaceful protests.Before the appeal deadline in March, there was speculation that the federal government might not appeal after all. But it did, at the very last minute. In retrospect, that’s not surprising. Before he was prime minister, Mark Carney wrote in a 2022 Globe and Mail editorial that the Convoy was “terrorizing” people and the elderly were “afraid to venture out of their homes.” He accused organizers of “blatant treachery” and “sedition” and proposed that the government respond by “choking off the money.” He should have apologized on behalf of his predecessor. Instead, he sought this appeal.People ask the CCF what we hope to achieve in this fight. After all, none of those who introduced the Emergencies Act will ever go to jail or face other sanctions. .We feel it’s important because if a Supreme Court decision confirms that the federal government violated the law, politicians might think twice before exercising such powers again. So far, there just hasn’t been enough accountability.Take, for instance, the “blacklist” of Convoy “sympathizers,” which was circulated to thousands of brokerages and firms across Canada. To date, there’s been no formal account of the actual consequences experienced by those on the list.Meanwhile, bad press on this issue has hardly dogged the man who made the final decision. Justin Trudeau is now launching a movie production business. As for the other architects, Marco Mendicino, former public safety minister and Carney’s chief of staff, is a mainstream media pundit. Chrystia Freeland is promoting her new book and recently warned CNN viewers about “threats to democracy.” About the blacklist, Freeland denied in 2022 that there was any broad distribution of names. “The RCMP has given to financial institutions names of leaders and organizers of the protests and people whose trucks were part of occupations and blockades,” she said. The view from SaskatchewanAs a Saskatchewan minister, I found those polarizing Convoy weeks challenging.The protests in Ottawa followed weeks of an almost celebratory mood out west, as convoyers truck-pooled their way across the country. They made a stop at the Saskatchewan legislature, which they circled loudly and proudly, flying flags and tooting — what else — their horns..Premier Scott Moe came out in support. Later, during the 2024 election, there were rumblings that in doing so, he had “gone too far to the right.” But remember, I told constituents, it was everyday workers who started the Convoy — truckers who’d lost their jobs after unvaccinated drivers were banned from cross-border US trips.And when they got to Ottawa, they were remarkably peaceful, all things considered. Yes, we all agreed, the horn-tooting went too far — but the depiction of them as food-bank-stealing, Nazi-flag-flying thugs was merely propaganda. Compare that to the recent protests in France, which have devolved into real looting, arson, and violence. There was serious concern over some of the wild stories we were hearing from Ottawa about kids being separated from their trucker families by social services, trucks being impounded without advance notice, and — yes — bank accounts being frozen.One convoy supporter, a Saskatchewan rancher and businessman, told me, “They got us, Bronwyn. We didn’t see them coming after our bank accounts. That’s what scared us into submission.”We all know now that there were no threats to the broader “security of Canada” — no “national emergency” that required the federal government to override the Charter, along with core areas of provincial jurisdiction and existing Criminal Code provisions.As the Canadian Constitution Foundation argued and the Federal Court agreed, banning any participation in, travel to, or funding of the protests was simply wildly overbroad. “The scope of the regulations…captured people who simply wanted to join in the protest by standing on Parliament Hill carrying a placard,” said Federal Court of Appeal Justice Richard Mosley. In other words, the Emergencies Act criminalized all peaceful protesters through guilt by association.Guilt by association — something we should all feel about the shameful passing of this Act four years ago.Bronwyn Eyre is Senior Counsel with the Canadian Constitution Foundation and Saskatchewan’s former Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
