Canadian court deems PM Trudeau’s attacks on Freedom Convoy truckers UNCONSTITUTIONAL

01/26/2024 / By Ava Grace

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s attacks on truckers who joined the Freedom Convoy were both unconstitutional and unreasonable, according to a Canadian court.

Justice Richard Mosley of the Canadian Federal Court (FCT) made this proclamation in a Jan. 23 ruling. He wrote: “I have concluded that the decision to issue the [Emergencies Act] 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.”

The magistrate also ruled that the act violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (CCRF) – particularly against freedom of thought, opinion of expression. Moreover, the act was also found to have infringed on the right to security against unreasonable search and seizure.

Mosley’s decision followed an application for judicial review requested by the the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF), the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and others. These parties cried foul over the Trudeau government’s use of emergency measures to quell Freedom Convoy protests in the federal capital Ottawa. Under the Emergencies Act the prime minister enacted in 2022, the government froze protesters’ bank accounts; conscripted tow truck drivers to haul away vehicles part of the protest; and arrest people for participating in assemblies deemed illegal.

Christine Van Geyn, the CCF’s director of litigation, lauded the decision in a post on X. “The Trudeau government’s use of this extraordinary law may be the most severe example of overreach and violations of civil liberties that was seen during the [Wuhan coronavirus] pandemic,” she earlier remarked. (Related: Poll: 67% of Canadians feel everything in the country is “broken” under Trudeau.)

“The use of this powerful law was unauthorized because the legal threshold to use the law was not met. The Emergencies Act contains a last resort clause: it can only be used when there is a national emergency and there are no other laws at the federal, provincial and/or municipal levels which can address the situation. [The Canadian] Parliament cannot use the Emergencies Act as a tool of convenience, as it did in this case.”

No need for emergency powers

At the time, critics of the use of emergency powers said Trudeau’s government unnecessarily usurped people’s bigger rights for what was essentially a policing issue contained to one city, Ottawa. Meanwhile, the CCLA said the FCT’s decision “sets a clear and critical precedent for every future government seeking to use the Emergencies Act.

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, also posted the news of the ruling on his X profile. He accused Trudeau of breaking “the highest law in the land” with the Emergencies Act. Poilievre continued: “He caused the crisis by dividing people, then he violated [CCRF] rights to illegally suppress citizens.

Last year, a judicial inquiry said the Freedom Convoy protest was the result of simmering social, economic and political grievances exacerbated by the pandemic. Despite this, the inquiry concluded that Trudeau was justified in invoking emergency powers. It argued that senior officials had information about threats of “serious violence,” and added that a series of local policing mistakes “contributed to a situation that spun out of control.”

Meanwhile, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government will appeal Mosley’s ruling. “Our national security, which included our national economic security, was under threat,” she said in defense of the Emergencies Act. “We were convinced at the time … [that] it was the right thing to do.”

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Watch Justin Trudeau run away from Alexa Lavoie of Rebel News after she asked about the FCT’s ruling in the clip below.

This video is from the Pool Pharmacy channel on Brighteon.com.