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January 25, 2024 - 7:00am
For those who have watched or, worse, lived through the onslaught on civil liberties in Canada since the pandemic, there was little sign that the tide would turn. But finally, a major and unambiguous win has been delivered. Yesterday, the country’s Federal Court ruled against the government in a case challenging its February 2022 invocation of the Emergencies Act. The judge hearing the case brought by civil liberties groups and two individuals declared that the government overstepped constitutional boundaries in annulling foundational rights, including freedom of expression.
To many, this decision came as a surprise because most judicial rulings had been in favour of the government. For example, a recent case against the travel vaccine mandate was dismissed by the Federal Court, which declared it “irrelevant” as the mandate has since been lifted. With regards to challenging the Emergencies Act, the equivalent of martial law in Canada, hope was previously vested in a government inquiry into the use of the act. But it was another major disappointment: the Justice tasked with the inquiry deemed that the government had been justified in its invocation of the Emergencies Act over the Freedom Convoy.
This week’s ruling was, if anything, begrudging. The Justice showered the government with sympathy, going as far as stating that he would have likely been in favour of invoking the Act as well if had he been part of the government. Nonetheless, the final decision was clear: the invocation of the Emergencies Act, as with all subsequent actions, represented an egregious and unconstitutional abuse of power.
The decision by the Federal Court may represent novel avenues for affected individuals to sue the government for damages it unconstitutionally afflicted on them. But the bigger significance of the decision lies in the effect that it will have on public opinion. With Canada’s major media outlets sustained by government funding, the media has generally been friendly to government actions, especially during the days of the Freedom Convoy. But now the formidable and respected Canadian judiciary has made a clear and unequivocal ruling that the government acted unlawfully. If this is not a vindication of the protests’ message, it is at least a vindication of citizens’ rights to use the small batch of options they have to challenge executive power — that is, to protest.
Over three years, governments have acted with impunity as they have enacted laws that caused citizens to lose access to their families and livelihoods over declining a vaccine that didn’t even stop the transmission of Covid-19. The political structure of the Canadian government is such that the executive branch, merged with the legislative branch, has wide-reaching powers to decide laws and use the force of law to apply them. Once a government has won its four-year mandate, there is little that citizens can functionally do to oppose these decisions. As we saw during the pandemic, governments are willing and able to go very far as long as they think that their decisions are sufficiently popular with key voting bases.
The Canadian government immediately announced that it will appeal the decision, so it remains to be seen if this victory will be temporary. But should the decision stand, it will act as a powerful disincentive for future governments to invoke such draconian actions against peaceful protestors. This, for Canada at least, is a major victory for civil liberties.
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SubscribeI’m happy for the court ruling, but I don’t think it really changes anything. The regime media, with the exception of the National Post, are unwavering foot soldiers for the Liberals. It doesn’t matter what the Libs do, the regime media will blindly follow. I suppose if someone sues the feds for damages, this will be helpful, but other than that, it’s meh.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. Perhaps someone will receive symbolic compensation, but otherwise nothing will change. I hope I don’t offend you if I say it’s not about Trudeau, it’s about Canadians
Not offended at all. Not sure what you mean though.
Yes, El Uro: IT IS about Canadians and their weak-minded ways. “We” voted Trudeau into power not one but three times, even though we all saw through his opportunistic and selfish attempt to claw back his majority at the most inopportune time (i.e.during the height of the pandemic, only half-way through his mandate, costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions). Canadians want as much as everything to be free, no charge, and paid for by deficit-financing. Paraphrasing JT, he famously said that monetary policy is unimportant, in response to a question about our empty coffers. That’s JT and that’s Canadians. BTW: I think the most revealing thing Trudeau said during the entire pandemic was to the effect that “it’s okay to protest anything — but not to protest against the lockdown measures”. Canadians blithely ignored this evil portent — he was setting us up for crushing the Trucker Convoy — while next we waddle down to the post-box to see when our next free money (pandemic allowance welfare) will arrive. Regardless of how easily-bought-off we are as a people (at home) we are now the world’s laughing stock for our weak performance on the world’s stage. Our politicians used to say that “Canada is punching about its weight” on that same world stage. It was never very accurate, and now is the punchline for an ineffective, corrupt, and bankrupt joke of a country.
Well, this will be his last term, I am pretty sure.
https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/growing-proportion-canadians-want-trudeau-step-down
I thnk a lot of Canadians are tired of him. I’ve always been a pretty centre-of-the-road voter but the current Liberal Party of Canada has swung so radically far left (or something?) that it is frightening me. He lost me when called covid vaccine-skeptics ‘racists and climate deniers’. Something just cracked in me. Like when Hilary Clinton called Trump supporters a ‘basket of deplorables’. I loathe that kind of divisive rhetoric and anyone who spouts it always drops in my estimation. Years ago, the ‘right’ used to spout quite a bit of nasty rhetoric towards ‘the left’ but the tables seemed to have turned or my perspective has changed. Either way, I am discovering, like many interested people, that there is a ‘sensible middle’ out there where ideas can be discussed on their merits without juvenile name-calling.
Unfortunately there is no representative of that “middle” that is currently available to contest the next federal election.
I think he means that Trudeau is a symptom, not the cause. I’ve met far too many people who are more than willing to swallow whatever propagandistic trite the Liberals shovel out without a second (or even first) thought. It’s a longstanding issue in Canada, and one of the reasons the Liberals have been in power more often than not, despite nothing at all about them being liberal or even having any kind of platform or ideology beyond ‘whatever gets us elected’. If they act like an entitled class of pseudo-aristocratic landed gentry, well they basically ARE.
This is true for sure
Yes I saw a headline from our lovely Globe & Mail basically bemoaning the ruling with ‘what has Canada come to?” Could not bring myself to read the article because I knew it would be desperate propaganda.
Trudeau should be hanged or Guillotined if he prefers.
He is a carbuncle on the backside of humanity that needs to be ‘lanced’, no ifs, no buts.
Racist Grandpa is angry today! What’s up, pops? They hide the sherry bottle again?
I love the fact that you people are dumb enough to upvote a comment like this – justifies every word I say!!!
Honestly Champagne, even by your low standards, this is an unworthy attack on Mr Stanhope.
If you wanted to have a go at him, you could have written:
“Indeed, Charles? I note you use the passive voice. But praytell, which bloodthirsty mob should run this 18th Century spectacle? Who controls them? What guarantees do you have that they would be more tempered in the exercise of unrestrained power than PM Trudeau?”
Best thing to do to champagne socialist is to just ignore him. He’s a wind up merchant!
Your comment has prompted me to upvote Charles Stanhope.
just upvoted it on the basis that if you object its probabaly very good.
Seconded.
Genetically he can’t help his actions. His father is Fidel Castro
Disagree. That would be a waste and turn the pathetic little man that he is into a venerated martyr. A better punishment would be to imprison him and require him to sit, between the hours of 9am and 6pm each day, and listen to members of the public explain to him how they were injured by his ignorance, corruption, arrogance and whatever on earth else it was that drove him to act the way he did, has hurt them, and to ask him questions. The Canadian government could levy a charge on visitors for the privilege, to pay for the costs of hi incarceration and to pay compensation to victims of his bullying. There would also be a boost to Canadian tourism as people would fly from all of the world to vent their anger at him – I’d be on the first plane out there! A living museum of tyranny to serve as a warning that it must never, ever, happen again. And, once that is done and everyone has had a chance to berate and interrogate him, debar him from holding any form of public office, remove his passport and his eligibility to opt for euthanasia, and release him in to community service in a retirement home for aged truckers for the rest of his life.
Great idea! He should be naked in a cage that is a 1.5×1.5×1.5 meter cube with his excretions caught in a tray below and people should be able to poke him with blunt sticks.
..condemned to clean the truckers‘ toilets for the rest of his life
I’m not sure what the point of these impotent rants is exactly. Trudeau was actually popular with many Canadians – the Conservatives have to argue their case, not indulge these infantile fantasies. In fact, this represents almost everything that is wrong and futile about so much anti progressive politics….
Allow them their fantasies if it gets them through the day. There is something terribly wrong with Canada, as with the US, that things have come to this pass. One reason is the left works harder at politics than anyone else. It puts bread on their table and serves as a replacement for religion.
I’m genuinely curious about what you think is progressive about Trudeau’s authoritarian politics, and why you seem to assume I am a “Conservative”. I’m anti-bullying and I cannot abide narcissists or liars whether they claim to be progressive, conservative or anything in between or beyond; and Trudeau is a narcissistic, lying bully. And I want to know why he did what he did to all those innocent people. Perhaps you have a different perspective to mine but does it occur to you that perhaps I have seen things that perhaps you haven’t?
Trudeau is not some alien malevolent god beamed from the cosmos into the heart of the Canadian State.
Listening to Canadians I get the impression they believe they are victims of some evil intergalactic race that planted Trudeau in their midst to create a terrible oppressive regime.
I don’t buy it. Canadians used democracy to give Trudeau two decades of non stop political success. Trudeau is Canada and Canada is Trudeau.
It is time for the rest of the world to judge Canada by the actions of its leader.
Don’t forget that his party won the support of just 32.62% of those voted in 2021. Less than the Conservatives’ 33.74%. That’s 5.56 million adults in a nation of 37 million people.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party won 32.2% of the UK vote in 2019. 10.3 million adult votes in a nation of 67 million people.
Trudeau is no more Canada than Jeremy Corbyn is the UK. Don’t judge Canada, or anyone else, by the actions of their deluded, manipulative, so-called leader.
Let’s not forget that this “protest” was a weeks long blockade of Canada’s capital city by far right extremists with the express intention of overthrowing the duly elected government of that country.
They got off lightly. Imagine what a wannabe dictator like Trump would have done…
Actually made me chuckle. Thanks CS. This is just as deluded as the comment you criticized.
Their words, Jimmy, not mine.
I know you guys like to pretend that the MOU never existed, just like you try to pretend there were no swastikas or confederate flags there – but we all saw them!
The delusion is all yours, sport…
Proof?
Here is the MoU for those who are unaware that the idiotic demand was made to overthrow the government : https://paginiromanesti.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Combined-MOU-Dec03.pdf
This is silly of course. None of the people who drew up the agreement were leaders of the protest. And it was strongly denounced by the protestors themselves. When you have a decentralized, spontaneous movement like the trucker protest, you’re going to get wing nuts. I’m surprised how few nut jobs there were actually.
I was writing a reply, but it’s honestly just not worth the effort.
No, it isn’t. You know I’m right.
Legitimate question here. Are swastikas and confederate flags illegal in Canada? While those symbols are in bad taste or rude, neither having bad taste nor being rude is against the law so far as I know. Is it illegal to in fact hold racist views? Did they pass a thoughtcrime bill while I wasn’t looking? Why does it matter if there were a few idiots in the group. Statistically speaking, you could pick any group of fifty people out of a phone book and one or two of them are bound to be criminals, several are bound to be insufferable jerks, there’s probably a few that have racist or otherwise disagreeable viewpoints. So what?
Guilt by association is a fallacy. Just because the Nazis did X doesn’t mean X is bad, because in addition to evil things the Nazis also did a lot of the same things every government does. They built a lot of buildings that still stand, and most of those buildings are not evil because the Nazis built them. It’s just absurd. By a similar reason, just because a dozen people in a protest of hundreds or thousands had objectionable symbols, that doesn’t mean everyone at the protest was a Nazi or a racist. This is so elementary I feel foolish explaining it, but here we are. It’s just rubbish that the media engages in because they abandoned facts and reason for emotions and sensationalism decades ago to increase revenues.
I might be a bit naiive here but I believe with the legitimate convoy supporters any nazi flag -waving that might have went on was indicating the exact opposite of what some of the mainstream media were portraying it to be. It was in protest of Justin Trudeau’s authoritarianism, not an expression of solidarity with Nazi-ism. In the minds of these protesting flag-wavers, they were calling the authoritarian Prime Minister Trudeau the Nazi, not expressing sympathy with Nazi’s. Maybe not a good idea, as it played into the narrative that most of the protesters were extreme right-wing nazi-sympathizers which I don’t think was true. But an important distinction.
Anybody remember the hammer and cicle flags at climate change demonstrations? Apparently, Nazi bad but communism is ok.
Like what he did to BLM you mean
Which was jack squat. He let a bunch of rioters ruin their own neighborhoods and start an anti-police movement that resulted in an increase in crime, a shortage of police officers, and cuts in funding to police departments. Those liberal cities that embraced the movement have been reaping the consequences ever since. Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. I’d call it good strategy if I thought Trump was capable of formulating and implementing complex strategies.
Lovely last sentence!
Exactly
I do see your point, but when push comes to shove, I would support pretty much anyone who is giving the unctuous Justin Trudeau some grief.
Exactly. Funny how that was not included in the article.
Can you imagine if the protesters had been a different demographic but protesting for similar reasons in a similar way (any demographic the Left favors). Do you really think the protesters would be forcibly un-banked (so largely unpersoned). No way… in any case, who in the world wants their government to have that kind of power over them…
Leftists
They wouldn’t have been allowed to get as far as the truckers.
“allowed”? You don’t appear to know how rights work.
The only thing the government did wrong was not to invoke the Emergencies Act sooner.
Not according to the court.
It’s OK I can see your ironic sense of humour there 🙂
It should be invoked daily and mentioned in school prays
daily school and workplace prayers: thank you God for the EA and Lord Trudeau, our beacon of hope and safety from the greasy working men in their high vis vests, rough hands and course language.
For those paying attention, Canada during and since the pandemic has been the canary in the coal mine in terms of the left’s increasingly uncloaked longing for despotic social control.
… and Scotland and NewZealand are not far behind. Come to think of it, Canada and NewZealand are Scottish colonies … coincidence?
No!
A useful history lesson for me, my Unherd subscription was well spent this month.
I can sleep better tonight knowing Anglo Saxons are not the root cause of all this global craziness.
Daniel Lee, very well put. The left’s longing for despotic social control has also been unmistakable in my U.S. home state of California under Governor Newsom – who is a fellow graduate, along with Emmanuel Macron and Jacinda Ardern, of the WEF’s “Young Global Leaders” program! All my life up until 2020 I believed in what the center-left stood for. But my eyes have been opened, and I have become so alarmed by the overreach and extremism on the left that I now consider myself center-right, and actively resist this overreach. Unfortunately, I cannot talk to family members or lifelong friends about this, which makes me feel very alone at times. I am grateful for these articles and the comments.
And now what? Seriously, what happens next? Suing govt is a tedious and expensive process in the best of circumstances; when your PM is a budding totalitarian backed by the apparatus of (most of) the state, it is exponentially harder. It becomes harder still when one considers how many everyday Canadians are likely on the govt’s side.
They buy the bilge about the truckers being racists or nazis or whatever other cheap insult was hurled at them. Covid revealed far too many sheep in societies that have grown complacent about individual liberty and the freedoms people take for granted.
I am so happy for the poor maligned truckers . They were horrible treated by Trudeau‘s government, the windows of their trucks smashed and some of them were de-banked. Trudeau behaved like a mini dictator and I hope he will find himself in political hell soon.
You are expecting a lot from a media that is owned by the government lock, stock and barrel. Canada has been turned into a modern-day dystopia by the love child of Fidel Castro.
The Emergencies Act showed Trudeau’s authoritarian streak.
4 people arrested near Coutts Alberta Canada during the anti-vaccine protests have been in prison for 2 years without trial.
They have been charged with plotting to shoot RCMP officers. People accused of violent crimes are not normally released on bail.
This is a very one-sided article. I’m no fan of Trudeau, and mistakes were made, but in the end lives were saved and the economy saved from collapse. People have short memories and important facts have been left out of this article. For example, the article fails to mention that although the vaccine did not prevent contracting and transmission of Omicron, it did prevent serious disease. Most of those who ended up in hospital were the unvaxxed, leading to a near collapse of the hospital system and jeopardizing the lives of those urgently needing care, line cancer patients. How is that OK? Furthermore, the Truckers’ Convoy was not a peaceful protest. Peaceful protests do not disrupt other people’s lives. This was an illegal blockade that prevented people from carrying on with their lives. Thousands lost their jobs as businesses in downtown Ottawa closed down and the border with the U.S. was shut down (how long until Canada ran out of food??). Finally, the Emergency Measures Act was extremely limited in its scope, and was mainly aimed at compelling tow-truck drivers to pull the trucks out. It ended after 10 days. No civil liberties were infringed on, unless one considers illegal blockades to be a civil liberty (indigenous people were specifically exempted from carrying out illegal blockades).