An accountant who participated in the “Freedom Convoy” is suing two lawyers who represent other protest organizers, alleging they negligently failed to warn him of the potential legal risk of his involvement.
Chad Eros, who set up a not-for-profit corporation to receive contributions to the convoy, on Tuesday launched legal action against lawyers Keith Wilson, Eva Chipiuk and the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, an Alberta-based legal charity.
As everybody knows now, “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams has been #canceled because of what is being called a “racist rant” he posted on his daily video stream last week. An acquaintance who knows Adams passed along the word that Adams is wealthy enough that this is basically his way of taking early retirement. What’s most interesting in this controversy is that none of the people rushing to condemn Adams has even bothered to explain why what he said was wrong.
The ruling class only supports racism when it’s against white people. Do I have that right?
The Ontario Hunan Rights Commission buying into full on racism: pic.twitter.com/IzLFzhPa39
— Woke Watch Canada (@WokeWatchCDN) February 28, 2023
OTTAWA—The public inquiry report on the government’s unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act to deal with so-called “Freedom Convoy” protesters concluded the move was regrettable, but ultimately warranted.
Yet it wasn’t the last word on the controversial decision.
On Friday last week we had the moderately awaited report on the calling of the Emergencies Act, and the revelation, via the Globe and Mail, of Chinese government interference in the Canadian election.
Justice Paul Rouleau has reluctantly ruled that the invocation of the Emergencies Act was justified. While this will inevitably have some Canadians spitting mad, there is little reason to doubt him. Rouleau is an accomplished lawyer and justice and, if we believe ourselves to be a country ruled by law, it is incumbent upon even those furious with the decision to accept it and move on.
Bill Maher: “Big story, and I wonder how much it’s going to get covered in the liberal media, because it’s about natural immunity. They did a giant study, 65 countries… Natural immunity: as good or better than the vaccine.”pic.twitter.com/fFtZN0KeX3
— Michael P Senger (@MichaelPSenger) February 20, 2023
Commissioner Paul Rouleau says it was with “reluctance” that he decided the federal Liberal government was justified in its use of the Emergencies Act over a year ago to quash the Freedom Convoy protests.
That word really says it all.
That’s effectively the conclusion of the “Report of the Public Inquiry into the 2022 Public Order Emergency” delivered by Justice Paul Rouleau on Friday. The final report, which was required after the invocation of the Emergencies Act, concluded that the government met the legal threshold required to invoke emergency powers during Freedom Convoy protests — and freeze bank accounts of those suspected to be involved.
The Crown is requesting an out-of-town judge to preside over next month’s hearings for convoy leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Lich to “avoid any apprehension of bias” at trial and while considering Barber’s stay-of-proceedings application.
Barber’s lawyer, Diane Magas, filed an application to stay all charges against her client, accusing the Crown of “abuse of process” and trampling his right to a fair trial after the public disclosure of 4,000 pages of Barber’s private cell phone data.
Is Canada turning into an electoral autocracy?
I ask this question in all seriousness. We’ve just witnessed the final chapter to the Emergencies Act invoked almost a year ago by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Friday afternoon declared legitimate in the report by Commissioner Paul Rouleau who headed the Public Order Enquiry Commission.
Walking past the Parliament Buildings on the way back from the release of the Rouleau commission report on last year’s public order emergency, it felt preposterous that this was the same place as the protest site that seethed with such noise, fury and resentment one year ago.
Under federal legislation called the Emergencies Act (the one-time War Measurers Act, renamed by a Conservative government) the Government of Canada can invoke special powers and then must must conduct a review of how those powers were used.
‘Whereas, under subsection 63(1) of the Emergencies Act, the Governor in Council shall, within 60 days after the expiration or revocation of a declaration of emergency, cause an inquiry to be held into the circumstances that led to the declaration being issued and the measures taken for dealing with the emergency;’
Frankly I was right to expect nothing Rouleau says invoking the Hitler Act was AOK with him.
Trudeau government was justified in using unprecedented powers of Emergencies Act: ruling
The Trudeau government’s unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act last year was justified, Commissioner Paul Rouleau has ruled, but could have been avoided if not for failures of policing and federalism.
OTTAWA—The Crown wants an out-of-town judge to preside over the criminal trial of two main “Freedom Convoy” organizers, as one of them argues his charges should be stayed because the disclosure of a huge volume of cellphone records violated his rights to privacy and a fair trail.
The application for a judge from outside the capital — where convoy protesters staged a three-week occupation to denounce COVID-19 health measures last year — is meant to ensure there is no risk of “unconscious” bias in the case, said Dallas Mack, the deputy Crown attorney at the Ottawa courthouse.
The bureau withdraws a document warning about ‘radical-traditionalist’ believers.
House Republicans are accusing the Federal Bureau of Investigation of political bias, and the bureau certainly isn’t helping its own defense. See its retraction of a field-office report lumping some “traditionalist” Catholics with “violent extremists” and calling for government investigation.
A whistleblower last week leaked a January report from the FBI’s Richmond office entitled: “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”
I believe the time has passed when calls to dismantle the FBI could be passed off as “fringe.”
This week marks one-year since the Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy protests, and on that anniversary, the Liberals are fighting a war on two fronts defending their decision to use that extraordinary legislation.
