TORONTO (LifeSiteNews) — The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) announced yesterday that it will be suing the Canadian federal government over its invocation of the Emergencies Act (EA), due to violations of civil liberties.
“The government’s emergency declaration is unprecedented and seriously infringes the Charter rights of Canadians,” stated Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, the executive director and general counsel for the CCLA, yesterday during a press conference.
Aviv and a fellow CCLA member elaborated on the violations of civil liberties that have prompted them to sue the federal government, with Ewa Krajewska of Henein Hutchison LLP as their legal representation.
She pointed out that the “Charter right to peaceful assembly” is a “critical democratic tool,” which allows “marginalized people to stand up for their rights.” She further noted that a gathering can be both “disruptive” and “peaceful,” and that disruptive protests “can be the most effective way of raising awareness.”
Abby Deshman, director of the CCLA’s Criminal Justice Program, explained that one of the main reasons why the CCLA is legally challenging the Emergencies Act is because they believe the “threshold” legally required for enactment of the Emergencies Act, “put in place to safeguard our democratic processes,” has “not been met.”
Along with this lack of legal justification for the EA, “critical protection for the democratic process, rule of law, and the civil liberties of individuals” is absent, said Deshman, going on to cite what the legal threshold for the EA includes.
“Section three of the Emergencies Act requires that there be a national emergency, a temporary, urgent and critical situation that seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians, and is of such proportions or nature that it exceeds the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it,” said Deshman.
“It also encompasses serious situations that seriously threaten the ability of the government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of the country. In either case, the emergency must be such that it cannot be effectively dealt with under any other Canadian law.”
Deshman maintained that it is “unclear” whether any of these requirements have been met, and pointed out that “police deal with extremely complex, difficult law enforcement situations every day” and have already cleared border blockades and dealt with many other protests, “all without emergency powers.”
A further problem of the EA, she said, is that it allows emergency powers to be used “across the entire country,” and “place unprecedented restrictions on every single Canadian’s constitutional rights.”
“In other words, they apply to everyone,” said Deshman. She added that they could potentially be used to apply to the “thousands of protests” that take place in Canada every year.
“The order also requires financial institutions to turn over the personal financial details to CSIS and the RCMP, and to freeze the bank accounts and cut off all financial services for people who have attended or provided assistance to those participating in prohibited assembly,” noted Deshman.
She noted that again, these orders are not limited to trucker convoys, but “limit the rights of every single Canadian, with a particular focus on people who participate in, travel to or assist with [a] protest, no matter where it takes place, no matter the issue.”
Just this week, it was announced that the former director of communications for Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, Marion Isabeau-Ringuette, has been fired from her job following the leaking by hackers of details of online donations made to the Canadian truckers Freedom Convoy.
In another attempt to crack down on the Freedom Convoy protesters, the City of Ottawa announced on social media yesterday that protesters may end up having their pets confiscated, a practice which can often lead to an animal being killed.
Seven Canadian provinces now oppose the invocation of the Emergencies Act by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Debate by Canadian Parliament over Trudeau’s enactment of the Emergencies Act has been postponed to Monday.