Executive Summary: Key Legal and Evidentiary Issues

• The Federal Government's invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the "Freedom Convoy 2022" protests was challenged as unreasonable by civil liberties organizations.

• Central to the dispute was whether the protests constituted "threats to the security of Canada" under the narrow definition in the CSIS Act requiring acts of "serious violence" to persons or property.

• Economic disruptions caused by border blockades, while significant, were found insufficient to satisfy the statutory threshold for declaring a public order emergency.

• Certain provisions of the Emergency Measures Regulations and Economic Order were found to infringe protesters' Charter rights under paragraph 2(b) (freedom of expression) and section 8 (protection against unreasonable search and seizure).

• The disclosure of private financial information to the RCMP through the Economic Order lacked sufficient safeguards to be constitutionally reasonable.

• Provincial and local authorities were found capable of handling the protests with existing laws, negating the necessity threshold for a "national emergency."

The Freedom Convoy 2022 and the federal government's response

In late January 2022, a movement known as the "Freedom Convoy 2022" emerged in Canada, originating as a trucker-led demonstration against COVID-19 public health mandates and vaccination requirements for cross-border truckers. The convoy left Prince Rupert, bound for Ottawa, on January 22, 2022, and arrived in Ottawa on January 28, 2022, consisting of thousands of protesters and hundreds of vehicles, including many large transport trucks. The downtown core and Parliamentary Precinct were occupied by protesters, and while many participants were peaceful, the convoy also involved high-decibel noise disruptions such as honking and fireworks, exhaust fumes permeating neighboring properties, and reported incidents of harassment, assaults, and intimidation.

The Ottawa Police Service Chief declared on February 2, 2022, that "there may not be a policing solution" to the demonstration. On February 6, 2022, the Mayor of Ottawa declared a state of emergency. Concurrently, authorities were preoccupied by border blockades, notably at the Sweetgrass-Coutts, Alberta crossing and the Ambassador Bridge in Ontario. Intelligence reports identified extremist elements participating in the protests, including members of an organization known as Diagolon, and there were displays of flags with swastikas, Confederate flags, and Nazi SS symbols.

The invocation of the Emergencies Act

On February 14, 2022, the Governor General in Council issued a Proclamation declaring a public order emergency under subsection 17(1) of the Emergencies Act. That Proclamation was followed, on February 15, 2022, by the Emergency Measures Regulations and the Emergency Economic Measures Order. This marked the first ever use of the Emergencies Act in Canadian history. The regulations prohibited participation in public assemblies that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace, while the economic order empowered financial institutions to freeze the assets of "designated persons" and required disclosure of property information to the RCMP or CSIS.

From February 15 to 23, 2022, the RCMP disclosed information on about 57 entities and individuals to financial institutions, resulting in the temporary freezing of about 257 accounts. On February 23, 2022, the Proclamation was revoked, and the Regulations and Economic Order were terminated.

The judicial review proceedings

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Canadian Constitution Foundation, and other applicants challenged the Proclamation, Regulations, and Economic Order before the Federal Court. On January 29, 2024, Justice Mosley of the Federal Court granted the applications in part, finding that the declaration of a public order emergency did not satisfy the requirements of the Emergencies Act and that certain temporary measures violated the Charter.

The Federal Court applied the reasonableness standard to the Governor in Council's decision, defining "reasonable grounds" as the "point where credibly-based probability replaces suspicion." It found that the protests did not constitute "threats to the security of Canada" within the meaning of section 2 of the CSIS Act, which requires threat or use of acts of "serious violence" against persons or property. The Court noted that CSIS's assessment that there were no threats to the security of Canada within the meaning of the statutory definition had to be given some weight.

The Charter analysis

Regarding Charter rights, the Federal Court found that the Regulations infringed paragraph 2(b) of the Charter (freedom of expression) because they captured peaceful protesters who simply wanted to support the protest without participating in any disruption of the peace. The Economic Order was found to breach section 8 of the Charter because the information-sharing provisions in sections 5 and 6 authorized searches without requiring reasonable grounds. The RCMP required only "bare belief" before freezing accounts and accessing financial information, which the Court found insufficient to meet the constitutional standard.

While the Federal Court acknowledged that clearing out the blockades was a pressing and substantial objective, it determined that the measures failed the minimal impairment test under section 1 of the Charter because they were applied throughout Canada and less impairing alternatives were available.

The Federal Court of Appeal's decision

The Attorney General of Canada appealed the Federal Court's decision, while the CCLA and CCF cross-appealed on the paragraph 2(c) (freedom of peaceful assembly) issue. The Federal Court of Appeal, in reasons dated January 16, 2026, by de Montigny C.J., Laskin J.A., and Mactavish J.A., dismissed all appeals.

The Court of Appeal found that Cabinet could not reasonably conclude that existing provincial capacity and authority could not effectively address the situation. The record showed that the vast majority of convoy protests outside of Ottawa had been successfully managed through communication and negotiation over the preceding 10-12 days, and normal operations had resumed at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor. Border services at Coutts were fully restored on February 15, 2022, and the situation there was effectively dealt with before the Proclamation. The Court emphasized that invoking the Act requires more than convenience—it requires meeting the exacting threshold of a "national emergency" that cannot be dealt with under any other law of Canada.

The Court of Appeal also upheld the Charter findings, noting that the purely economic consequences of the blockades did not constitute threats involving "serious violence" as required by the statutory definition. The information-sharing provisions of the Economic Order failed to strike a reasonable balance between state interests and individual privacy rights.

Ruling and outcome

The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the Attorney General of Canada's appeals in files A-73-24, A-74-24, and A-75-24, thereby upholding the Federal Court's finding that the invocation of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and that certain measures violated the Charter. The cross-appeals by the CCLA and CCF regarding the paragraph 2(c) issue were also dismissed without costs. The appeal by Kristen Nagle and Canadian Frontline Nurses concerning standing was dismissed with costs. The interlocutory appeals by the Attorney General of Canada in files A-29-23 and A-30-23 were similarly dismissed with costs. Since neither the Attorney General nor the public interest litigants requested costs on the main appeals, none were awarded on those matters. The successful parties in the judicial review were the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Canadian Constitution Foundation; however, no specific monetary amount was awarded given the declaratory nature of the relief sought.