Court declares Justin Trudeau’s sweeping actions to suppress trucker protests were illegal

A federal court in Canada has ruled that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act against protesters in 2022 was unconstitutional, according to a judicial review released on Tuesday.

Trudeau utilized the Emergencies Act to stop truckers from protesting against the Canadian government’s COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and vaccine mandates. Trudeau’s use of the act was not legal and “not justified,” Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley wrote in the decision, according to the Canadian Constitutional Foundation (CCF).

“I conclude there was no national emergency justifying the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the decision to do so was therefore unreasonable,” Mosley wrote in his decision. “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.”

Many of us argued all along the government broke the law when they invoked the Emergencies Act. We should feel vindicated today, and grateful for the dogged determination of organizations like @CDNConstFound and @cancivlib pursuing this in Federal Court. https://t.co/C3DuqsdJDS

— Aaron Wudrick (@awudrick) January 23, 2024

Many “Freedom Convoy” participants were confronted and arrested by the police, had their personal and business bank accounts frozen, and had their vehicles towed after Trudeau implemented the Emergencies Act, according to The Washington Post.

The two advocacy groups that had brought the case before the court, the CFF and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), celebrated Mosley’s ruling. Mosley’s decision refutes a previous federal court ruling that found Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act as justified.

The Canadian government plans to appeal Mosley’s ruling, claiming that the Emergencies Act was only implemented because the country’s “national security … was under threat,” CTV News reported Tuesday.

“It was a hard decision to take,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said at a press conference, according to CTV. “We took it very seriously after a lot of hard work after a lot of careful deliberation. We were convinced at the time, I was convinced at the time, [that] it was the right thing to do.

“I remain and we remain convinced of that,” Freeland concluded.

Trudeau is overwhelmingly unpopular among the Canadian public, polling at a 64% percent disapproval rating as of Tuesday, according to the Angus Reid Institute. While a majority of Canadians believe Trudeau should resign in 2024, he has announced no plans to do so and has previously rejected the idea, according to Ipsos.

Canada’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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