CALGARY, Alberta (Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms) — The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is happy to announce that on Friday, November 18, 2022, lawyers for the Honorable Brian Peckford, the Honorable Maxime Bernier, and others filed their appeal of the October 20, 2022 decision of the Federal Court.
The Federal Court notified the parties that the constitutional challenges against the Federal Government’s travel mandate were struck for being “moot,” just eleven days prior to the start of the constitutional hearing, which had been scheduled for October 31, 2022.
The Federal Court issued full reasons on October 27, 2022. In her reasons, Associate Chief Justice Jocelyne Gagne found that the use of judicial resources for a five day hearing, when the travel mandate had already been lifted, outweighed the public interest in having the case heard on the merits.
After reviewing the Court’s detailed reasons, lawyers for the former premier of Newfoundland Brian Peckford, People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, and the applicants appealed on the grounds that the Federal Court Judge unreasonably failed to exercise her discretion to hear and decide the constitutional challenge to the travel mandate, and erred in her determination that judicial economy considerations outweighed the important public interest and uncertainty in the law.
“The travel mandate represents one of the most egregious infringements of Canadians’ mobility rights in Canadian history,” stated Allison Pejovic, one of the lawyers for the appellants. “Canadians need to have confidence in our justice system. It is a profound injustice for millions of Canadians to be denied a court ruling on the lawfulness of the federal government’s prohibition on their travel overseas or across our large country in a practical way,” continued Pejovic.
More information about the constitutional challenges filed with the support of the Justice Centre on behalf of Maxime Bernier and Premier Peckford and others can be found at jccf.ca.
Reprinted with permission from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.