YOU can help preserve this victory
On February 14, 2022, Prime Minister Trudeau’s government invoked the never before used Emergencies Act. Within days the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) filed a legal challenge against this unprecedented and dangerous use of the Act. The use of this extraordinary piece of legislation in response to the trucker convoy protests was unnecessary and damaging to both Canada’s democracy and our shared rights and liberties as Canadians.
Though revoked by cabinet by February 23, 2022, we decided to continue with our case to make sure no government will be able to abuse this piece of legislation again.
Then, we won.
On January 23, 2024, Justice Mosley of the Federal Court of Canada, agreed with the CCF and ruled that Cabinet’s invocation of the Act was not reasonable.
Justice Mosley found violations of Charter sections 2(b) and 8, and said that those violations were not minimally impairing and therefore not justified under section 1 of the Charter, the reasonable limits clause
What now?
We are now actively preparing for the government’s attempt to appeal this decision at the Federal Court of Appeal. We expect the next hearing date to be scheduled for late 2024 or early 2025. The government is determined to die on this hill and fight against Justice Mosley’s initial ruling.
But with your help, Canadians WILL win again.
It remains just as important now as it did in 2022 to uphold this victory at every level of court the government wants to fight in. A strict precedent needs to be upheld for when it is appropriate to invoke the Act due to how much power it gives governments to sidestep rights and important democratic checks and balances. We need to make sure that if this Act is ever used again, it’s used in a real emergency.
And the best way to ensure this is to uphold our victory.
This fight will be expensive. But the good news is that a generous donor has offered up to $40,000 in matching funds for money raised before October 10 to pay for this next stage of the case. This means your impact will be doubled if you donate right now.
YOU can help preserve this victory, one of the most important victories in our Foundation’s history.
Fighting against the abuse of emergency powers is one of the most important things a free society can do to preserve its long-term freedom.
While we are coming from a place of victory, the government—as always—is willing and able to throw their endless resources at this case to make it go away. But with your help, we will not let them do that. The law is on our side, so with your support, we will win again and secure an even more definitive precedent at a higher level of court.
Fund this challenge’s continues success using the form below:
Email Newsletter
The weekly Freedom Update is the best way of keeping you informed about the CCF’s work defending constitutional rights and freedoms. Each week we highlight some items that are keeping us busy, and to which your donations are vital.
Sign up below to start receiving these newsletters.