Civil Liberties Group Pledges to Fight ‘Tooth and Nail’ Against Feds’ Appeal of Emergencies Act Ruling

Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, executive director at Canadian Civil Liberties Association, speaks to media during a press conference in Toronto, Jan. 24, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov)

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is vowing to fight the federal government “tooth and nail” as Ottawa seeks to appeal a decision by the federal court that found its use of the Emergencies Act in 2022 was “unreasonable” and unjustified.

The CCLA says it will defend the Jan. 23 ruling of federal judge Richard Mosley that the invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to 2022’s Freedom Convoy infringed on Canadians’ charter rights.

“I want to be perfectly clear: we will fight them tooth and nail in the Federal Court of Appeal,” CCLA executive director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv said at a Jan. 24 press briefing in Toronto. “We will defend our historic victory for rights and freedom.”

Ms. Mendelsohn Aviv said her organization is putting the current and future governments “on notice” that federal “overreach” will not be tolerated.

“Even in times of crisis… no government is above the law,” she said, adding that she is confident in the ability of the CCLA’s legal team to win the case before the Federal Court of Appeal.

News of the government’s plan to appeal the judge’s decision came the same day the ruling was handed down.

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Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters at a Jan. 23 press conference that the government stands by its decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to deal with the protest in Ottawa and plans to launch an appeal.

“We were convinced at the time, I was convinced at the time, it was the right thing to do,” she said. “It was the necessary thing to do. I remain and we remain convinced of that.”

The Freedom Convoy protest was started in response to a mandate enforcing COVID-19 vaccination for truck drivers crossing the Canada–U.S. border, and resulted in encampments of trucks in the nation’s capital. The protest evolved into a larger movement against pandemic mandates and restrictions, with parallel protests being held at several Canada-U.S. border crossings.

The federal government invoked the emergency measures on Feb. 14 to give law enforcement expanded powers to arrest demonstrators, freeze the bank accounts of some protestors, and require towing companies to remove protesters’ vehicles from Ottawa’s downtown core.

Ruling Reaction

Justice Mosley, in his ruling, said the Emergencies Act was meant to be a tool of last resort, and Ottawa could not invoke it because “it is convenient, or because it may work better than other tools at their disposal or available to the provinces.”

He said there were other laws in Canada to deal with the protests, pointing out that the provincial governments of Quebec and Ontario had been able to deal with the protests on their own.

Ms. Freeland said that while the Liberal government respects “very much Canada’s independent judiciary,” it did not agree with the decision and would fight it.

Applauding the Federal Court’s decision were Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Both have faulted the government for using the Emergencies Act, saying it violated Canadians’ rights and freedoms.

Ms. Mendelsohn Aviv said the threshold for use of the Emergencies Act is “extremely high.”

“The government must demonstrate that there is an emergency arising from threats to the security of Canada and that that emergency truly has a national scope,” she said in a press release. “The Federal Court agreed that this threshold was not met.”

Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.