Representatives from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) comment following the release of the Public Order Emergency Commission’s final report on the government's use of the Emergencies Act. Appearing at the news conference in Toronto are CCLA members Cara Zwibel (director of fundamental freedoms, right) and Noa Mendelsohn (executive director, centre), as well as Ewa Krajewska (partner at Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP, left). The organization launched a legal challenge in February 2022 of the government’s use of the Act.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association held a news conference today to respond to Justice Rouleau’s decision that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met the threshold to invoke the Emergencies Act. His decision is laid out in a five-volume report.

As I’ve reported on a number of occasions, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has maintained throughout—when the Act was invoked in February, 2022, and during the inquiry process— that the very high threshold in the Act was not met. The group continues to maintain that position and will be releasing a statement with a more detailed response to Rouleau’s findings in the coming days.

The CCLA pointed out in today’s news conference, that in his statement, Rouleau said his task was not to discuss the legality of the invocation of the Act. He said that job belonged to the courts. Last February, after the invocation of the Act, the CCLA initiated and have since maintained an application for judicial review before the Federal Court. This court will assess the legality of the declaration and also consider the legality and constitutionality of the emergency measures that were put in place. According to Cara Zwibel, the CCLAs director of fundamental freedoms, this application is to be heard in early April.

In his statement, the Commissioner did take issue with some of the emergency measures that were put in place including the economic measures (ie. de-banking) and how these impacted those who were affected by the orders.

Ewa Krajewska, counsel for the CCLA also made particular note of one of Rouleau’s recommendations, which is that the Emergencies Act be amended so that governments are bound by the law to produce all inputs to Cabinet and ministers, so that Canadians know exactly what went into the decision to invoke the Act. Because the Act does not currently require this, the government voluntarily waived cabinet privilege, but it was not bound to do so. The CCLA agrees the Act should be amended to ensure a high level of transparency.

You can access the CCLA video news conference here.

Postscript: From comments Rouleau made after his report was made public: "I do not come to this conclusion easily, as I do not consider the factual basis for it to be overwhelming… Reasonable and informed people could reach a different conclusion than the one I have arrived at."