Ford and Jones were issued summonses on Oct. 24 to testify at the hearings into the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act to end the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa earlier this year. They refused to attend voluntarily, and the matter ended up in court.
Both government officials were scheduled to testify this week, on Nov. 10, but instead asked the federal court to declare that the summonses were issued without jurisdiction.
Justice Simon Fothergill, in issuing his written ruling, said the summonses “were validly issued.” He stated, “The Commission cannot be faulted for seeking to marshal and present all relevant evidence within its statutory mandate.”
The judge said, “The Court’s role when examining a claim of parliamentary privilege is limited to confirming whether the privilege exists and applies in the circumstances.”
Parliamentary Privilege Invoked
However, Fothergill ruled that as long as the Ontario Legislative Assembly remains in session, Ford and Jones “can resist the summonses by asserting parliamentary privilege and the Commission cannot take steps to enforce their attendance and compel them to give evidence.”The premier and the top minister, stated the judge, “have a lawful excuse for not complying with the summonses issued by the Commission. The Commission cannot take steps to enforce their attendance and compel them to give evidence.”
Fothergill noted in his decision that two provincial officials are scheduled to testify before the Commission—Mario Di Tommaso, deputy solicitor general, and Ian Freeman, a former deputy minister—but neither is part of the legislature.
Lawyers for the Commission argued it was “in the public interest to gain insight into the political choices that were made when faced with the events of early 2022.” The Ottawa Coalition of Residents and Businesses, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association also supported the summonses for Ford and Jones to testify.
