“Criminalizing Dissent”

There was never any question what Prime Minister Mark Carney thought about the Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa. In a Globe and Mail op-ed published on Feb. 7, 2022, the “Ottawa resident and former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England” wrote that the convoy was “terrorizing” people, that women were being forced to “flee abuse,” and that the elderly were “afraid to venture outside their homes.” He accused the organizers of “blatant treachery” and “sedition,” and proposed the government respond by “choking off the money.”

OTTAWA — The Liberal government is honking its final horn in its legal battle to validate its use of the Emergencies Act to deal with the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government filed its application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) on Tuesday in the hopes that the highest court in the land will overturn two earlier decisions that ruled the use of the draconian act was unjustified as a way to stop the protests.

Here we go again. Years after the federal government unleashed extraordinary powers against its own citizens during the 2022 Freedom Convoy, Canadians are once more confronted with an uncomfortable truth: the abuse has been legally acknowledged, yet no one in power will be held to account.

(Incognito)

The Liberal government unreasonably invoked the Emergencies Act to clear the convoy protests that gridlocked the capital city and border points nearly four years ago, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled on Friday.

The court dismissed the government’s appeal of a 2024 ruling which deemed former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to use the legislation unlawful and infringed on protesters’ Charter rights.

“As disturbing and disruptive the blockades and the convoy protests in Ottawa could be, they fell well short of a threat to national security,” wrote the three judges on the appeal court.