Feds Spent $2.2 Million to Defend Against Emergencies Act Lawsuit

The Peace Tower in Parliament Hill is pictured in morning light in Ottawa on March 7, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Ottawa has spent $2.2 million in its lawsuit against groups seeking damages for the invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy, according to the federal government.

The information came in response to an Inquiry of Ministry by Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu, who asked for the total legal costs incurred by Ottawa in responding to a lawsuit against four groups challenging the Feb. 14, 2022, invocation of the Emergencies Act. The four groups in the lawsuit were Canadian Frontline Nurses, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and individuals Jerimiah Jost, Edward Cornell, Vincent Gircys, and Harold Ristau.

Parliamentary Secretary and Liberal MP James Maloney said in the House of Commons on March 20 that the total legal costs as of Feb. 7, 2024, were around $2,231,000, which included litigation services provided by the Department of Justice and litigation support services. Because Department of Justice lawyers and paralegals are salaried public servants, no legal fees were incurred for their services.

The Freedom Convoy protest originated as a demonstration against mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for truckers traversing the Canada–U.S. border, but expanded into a broader movement opposing various pandemic-related mandates and restrictions. The federal government invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 to deal with the protests, giving law enforcement expanded powers to arrest demonstrators and freeze the bank accounts of some protestors.

On Jan. 23, 2024, Justice Richard Mosley ruled that Ottawa’s invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy protest was “unreasonable” and that related regulations infringed on Canadians’ Charter rights. The justice said the decision did not bear the “hallmarks of reasonableness” and was not justified by the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration.

The justice also wrote that the invocation of the Act infringed on Charter Sections 2(b), which deals with freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression, and Section 8, which deals with the right to be secured from unreasonable seizure.

Additional Lawsuits

The federal government is expected to spend much more on legal costs defending its decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in 2022. Shortly after Justice Mosely announced his decision, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the Liberal government would be appealing the decision.

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Then on Feb. 13, the main organizers of the Freedom Convoy launched a new $2 million lawsuit against Ottawa for invoking the Emergencies Act, claiming that Ottawa violated their Charter rights when invoking the act to end the protest. The parties in the lawsuit—including Convoy organizers Tamara Lich, Chris Barber, Tom Marazzo, and Danny Bulford, as well as “other protestors who were targeted by Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland”—submitted lawsuits on Feb. 13.

In a Statement of Claim for Mr. Marazzo filed in the Ontario Superior Court Justice, he claimed his Section 8 Charter rights were violated by the federal government freezing his bank account and credit cards.

Then on Feb. 14, the two-year anniversary of the Emergencies Act being invoked, several protestors who had their bank accounts frozen filed a tort lawsuit against federal ministers and financial institutions behind the decision. The Statement of Claim said the plaintiffs were subjected to the “unreasonable use of the Emergencies Act,” which breached their Section 8 and Section 2(b) Charter rights.