Some protesters from the freedom convoy movement are taking the Trudeau government to court to demand it to release the documents justifying the implementation of the Emergencies Act.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Canadian Front Line Nurses submitted a Federal Court application demanding the federal government fork over “all Orders in Council, minutes of meetings, cabinet submissions, memoranda, agreements and constituting documents” supporting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Act.
“Invocation of the Emergencies Act is improperly motivated by a design to target, threaten and punish individuals who have different views from that of the Prime Minister with respect to Covid-19 mandates and restrictions,” wrote the group’s lawyers.
“There is no national emergency. The Freedom Convoy protest has increased the Canadian public’s awareness with respect to the unreasonableness of government Covid-19 mandates and restrictions.”
According to the lawsuit, the federal government’s use of emergency powers contradicted the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights.
The Liberals have been reluctant to provide any evidence to support their claims that the protests constituted a public order emergency.
In an Orders in Council issued days after Trudeau’s invocation, the federal government argued that “continuing blockades” and the protests’ “adverse effects on the Canadian economy” were among the reasons justifying the emergency.
However, blockades at the Coutts and Ambassador Bridge border crossing have since been cleared.
Conservative MP John Barlow spoke on Sunday during the debate in the House of Commons over whether the Emergencies Act should be extended.
“Here, I want to be very clear,” he said. “The ramifications of invoking the Emergencies Act are profound. That is because it has never been done before.”
“Meanwhile, over the last week, the blockades the Prime Minister is saying are devastating our economy in Coutts, at the Ambassador Bridge and Emerson have all been resolved, and it did not take the Emergencies Act to do it. They were resolved because the police services in those areas used the tools that were available to them under the Criminal Code – existing tools. There was no need for the Emergencies Act to resolve these blockades.”
Despite the borders now being open and the protesters in Ottawa having largely dispersed, the Liberals and the NDP voted to prolong Emergencies Act powers for the Trudeau government for 30 days.
Under the act, the federal government can seize assets of protesters, arrest them for being in certain areas and even cancel their insurance.
