Civil Liberties Association Calls Ruling on Emergencies Act a ‘Massive Victory’

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is calling the Federal Court ruling on the Emergencies Act a “massive victory.” “Yesterday, the Federal Court of Canada handed down a massive victory for rights and freedoms in Canada,” said CCLA executive director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, speaking at a news conference Jan. 24 in Toronto. She told reporters that in the view of the CCLA, the protest in Ottawa had gone on for too long and needed to be addressed. But she said the question for the CCLA was about the federal government using emergency powers to do it. “CCLA’s concerns … that led to yesterday’s decision were about the government giving itself massive and extraordinary emergency powers—powers that may be necessary in a serious and extreme situation of a true national emergency as defined by that law, but were unreasonable in the circumstances,” she said....