Not All Protests Are Created Equal
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association shouldn’t be equating the “Freedom Convoy” with other movements.
The constitution Canada adopted in 1982 is quite clear that the freedoms it guarantees the country’s citizens are not absolute. Known as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or simply The Charter, it states in its first sentence that the document “guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” (Emphasis added)
The Charter’s “demonstrably justified” clause enabled parliament to pass an Emergencies Act in 1988 granting any government that invoked it extraordinary temporary powers. The law replaced the much more draconian War Powers Act which predated Canada’s new constitution.
Four days prior to the publication of this article, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet invoked Canada’s Emergencies Act for the first time since its passage in the late eighties. They did so to deal with the ongoing anti-public health mandate and anti-government protests that have rocked portions of Canada and especially Ottawa for the past three weeks.
