Justice Richard Mosley wrote that the decision the government made to declare a national emergency was beyond what was called for.
OTTAWA—There was no legal justification to use the Emergencies Act to quash weeks of pandemic-related protests, a move that resulted in a breach of Canadians’ Charter rights, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in a landmark decision the Trudeau Liberals immediately said would be appealed.
Despite Justice Richard Mosley’s contention the government went too far, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the threats to Canada at the time were real, and the use of the act was the right thing to do.
“We believed we were doing something necessary and something legal at the time,” she told reporters outside a cabinet meeting in Montreal.