Feds Spent Over $3.7 Million in Legal Fees Related to Invoking Emergencies Act, Says Justice Department

A police vehicle blocks a downtown street to prevent trucks from joining a blockade of truckers protesting vaccine mandates near the Parliament Buildings on February 15, 2022 in Ottawa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The federal government spent over $3.7 million in legal expenses related to its invoking of the Emergencies Act in February 2022 in response to the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa at the time, says the Department of Justice.

Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree, who is Justice Minister David Lametti’s parliamentary secretary, said in the House of Commons on June 14 that total legal costs associated with expenses the government incurred for outside legal counsel on “work related to the invocation of the Emergencies Act” along with subsequent legal action stemming from it amounted to just over $3,756,458.

“This amount includes outside legal fees related to the Public Order Emergency Commission, which had a timeline compressed by statute,” said Anandasangaree, adding that the fees were calculated from information contained in the Justice Department’s internal systems as of May 4, 2023.

Anandasangaree provided the information in the House in response to an order paper question tabled by Conservative MP Dane Lloyd on April 28, asking for the total amount of “legal costs incurred by the government in relation to the invocation of the Emergencies Act” across all federal departments.

Conservative MP and public safety critic Raquel Dancho reacted to the over $3.7 million in legal costs by saying that it was “wasteful” spending on Ottawa’s part.

“This is completely unacceptable and an abuse of taxpayer resources,” she told the Toronto Star in a June 24 report.

The Epoch Times contacted the Justice Department for comment on the legal expenses but did not immediately hear back.

The federal government invoked the Emergencies Act in February 2022, giving itself and the police additional powers to clear the Freedom Convoy protests happening in Ottawa’s downtown core.

Critics and the opposition Conservatives bemoaned the government’s invocation of the act, saying it did not meet the legal threshold to do so.

Ontario appeal court justice Paul Rouleau, who was the commissioner of the Public Order Emergency Commission that investigated the government’s use of the Emergencies Act, ruled in February of this year that the federal government had reached the “very high threshold required for the invocation of the act.”

“I have concluded that when the decision was made to invoke the act on Feb. 14, 2022, cabinet had reasonable grounds to believe that there existed a national emergency arising from threats to the security of Canada that necessitated the taking of special temporary measures,” Rouleau said on Feb. 17.

Omid Ghoreishi contributed to this report.