The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has said it will challenge the use of the Emergencies Act in court, just days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided to invoke it.
She announced the upcoming filing of the challenge.
“We are going to take the Government of Canada to court,” CCLA executive director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
The Prime Minister announced on Monday his intention to invoke the Emergencies Act for the first time in the country’s history to end the blockages of cross-border links as well as downtown Ottawa, the work of truckers protesting in this way against various sanitary measures or vaccination obligations.
Then, on Tuesday, the federal government issued the decree that activated emergency measures in the country and gave the government broad powers.
The government’s response to the protests is “unprecedented and contravenes the Charter of Rights and Freedoms”, criticized Ms.and Mendelsohn Aviv.
According to her colleague, Abby Deshman, the strict criteria for invoking the Emergencies Act were not met.
There is no national crisis, she said, and it is far from clear that the authorities were unable to handle the situation — another condition provided for in the law.
In addition, the emergency powers given to the government are not limited geographically: they apply to everyone, everywhere and even in the provinces that have told Justin Trudeau that they do not want them.
The ACLC’s objective is to have the decree invalidated.