The Federal Court of Canada has just issued its decision allowing the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA)’s challenge to the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act. The CCLA’s challenge was joined with that of a few other parties.
Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, Executive Director and General Counsel of the CCLA, made the following statement:
The Court concluded that:
The federal government’s decision to declare a public order emergency under the Emergencies Act in early 2022, as well as the associated regulations that it enacted, were unreasonable and were not justified on the facts or the law.
The regulations violated the Charter right to freedom of expression and the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.
From the moment the Emergencies Act was invoked, the CCLA raised our concerns.
Emergency is not in the eye of the beholder. Emergency powers are necessary in extreme circumstances, but they are also dangerous to democracy. They should be used sparingly and carefully. They cannot be used even to address a massive and disruptive demonstration if that could have been dealt with through regular policing and laws. The threshold for invoking 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. The Federal Court agreed that this threshold was not met.
The CCLA stood up to the government’s use of the Emergencies Act and challenged the government in court. The Federal Court’s decision sets a clear and critical precedent for every future government.