Six Members of Parliament across party lines have released a joint statement calling for the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency to respond to the recent federal court ruling which found that the invocation of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and unconstitutional.
“A Federal Court ruled that the government’s use of the Emergencies Act in 2022 was illegal and unconstitutional. A federal judge has ruled that Justin Trudeau and his Cabinet acted outside of their legal authority in invoking the Act and that the special laws they made during the so-called “emergency” violated the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed to Canadians under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” reads the statement.
The committee was established to review whether the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act was legitimate and is a mandatory requirement under the law.
The signatures of the statement include MPs Larry Brock, Rob Moore, Tako van Popta and Frank Caputo from the Conservative Party, NDP MP Randall Garrison and Bloc Quebecois MP Rhéal Éloi Fortin.
“The court ruling officially confirms that, by employing the Emergencies Act, the Trudeau government broke the law and treated the rights and freedoms of Canadians as expendable. The use of the Emergencies Act required a threat to national security which rose to the level of a national emergency,” continued the statement.
On Wednesday, the Federal Court ruled that the measures Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked under the Emergencies Act were unreasonable and unconstitutional.
The decision follows an application for judicial review launched by the Canadian Constitution Foundation, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and several other applicants in 2022 after the emergency measures were used to end the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa.
The invocation of the Emergencies Act allowed for the Trudeau government to freeze protesters’ bank accounts, arrest law-abiding demonstrators and conscript tow truck drivers to remove vehicles from the protest.
“Repeated attempts by parliamentarians and even the Rouleau Commission had been made to obtain the legal opinion the federal government alleges they secured to justify that a national emergency was unfolding, but the Trudeau government refused,” continued the statement.
“Given today’s court ruling, Canadians rightly want answers on how the Trudeau government reached the decision to use the Emergencies Act. The Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency does not have any meetings scheduled to address this matter, as it does require immediate action. Pursuant to Standing Order 106(4), we are calling on the Committee to be immediately recalled in order to address the Federal Court’s ruling that the February 2022 invocation of the Emergencies Act was illegal and unconstitutional,” concluded the statement.
Brock posted the statement to X, with a link for Canadians to sign a petition, calling for Trudeau’s immediate resignation.
“Will the NDP and Bloc stand up for rights and freedoms or trample on the Charter like Trudeau?” Brock wrote in the post.
