CCLA Reaction to the Revocation of the Declaration of Emergency

Abby Deshman, Director of Criminal Justice for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association made the following statement:

We welcome the government’s decision to revoke the proclamation of emergency – it is overdue.

From the outset, however, we have stated that the government did not meet the legal thresholds set out in the Emergencies Act.

We continue to believe that there was an insufficient legal basis for resort to the Emergencies Act and that the orders the government passed under this legislation were unconstitutional.

We also continue to believe that it is important for the courts to consider the legal threshold and constitutional issues so as to guide the actions of future governments.

Even though the orders are no longer in force, Canadians are left with the precedent that the government’s actions have set.

We will be consulting with our counsel over the next few days to determine what the next steps are in our litigation, but at this time we will continue our case.

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The CCLA had called for the federal government to revoke the declaration of emergency earlier this week. In a letter written to the government and released on Monday February 21, the CCLA pointed out the blockade in Ottawa has been cleared, while various border crossings were opened prior to – and without reliance on – the invocation of federal emergency powers.