ANALYSIS: Where Are the Protagonists of the Emergencies Act Crackdown Two Years Later?

Many public figures became household names around the time of the Freedom Convoy in the winter of 2022, for actions they took or didn’t, or for what they said or perhaps wish they hadn’t. The Federal Court ruled Jan. 23 that invoking the Emergencies Act was not justified and that it led to violations of charter rights. Here’s a look at the status of key figures involved in the events. David Lametti Liberal MP David Lametti was the justice minister and attorney general when hundreds of truckers protesting the vaccine mandate descended on Ottawa in late January 2022. He and his team of lawyers were responsible for drawing the legal opinion advising cabinet about whether it had grounds to invoke the Emergencies Act (EA) to deal with the Ottawa protest and simultaneous cross-country border blockades. It’s a blunt tool that replaced the War Measures Act in the 1980s and that hadn’t been used previously....