Emergencies Act: Federal Court Rules Invocation Against Freedom Convoy ‘Unreasonable,’ Unjustified

‘I have concluded that the decision to issue the Proclamation does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness,’ the judge said.

Police confront participants of the Freedom Convoy protest after the Emergencies Act was invoked, on Feb. 19, 2022. Scott Olson/Getty Images

A federal judge has declared that the invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy protest was “unreasonable” and that related regulations infringed on Canadians’ charter rights.

“I have concluded that the decision to issue the Proclamation does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness – justification, transparency and intelligibility – and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration,” wrote Justice Richard Mosley in a Jan. 23 decision.