The Canadian Constitution Foundation and Canadian Civil Liberties Association want to review meeting minutes and other documents, but the federal government says those fall under the principle of cabinet secrecy.
OTTAWA — Canada’s Federal Court needs information the government claims is secret to properly review whether the first use of the Emergencies Act — to end the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protests this winter — violated constitutional rights, civil liberties groups say.
In June, amid calls from the opposition to waive cabinet confidentiality, the government pledged to provide all “inputs” cabinet used to make the decision to a public inquiry investigating the affair. A spokesperson for the inquiry said Monday it is working with the government to obtain relevant documents, including from the federal cabinet.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association launched separate legal challenges of the decision in February. The groups argue the crisis surrounding the “Freedom Convoy” protests failed to meet the legal bar for declaring an emergency under— that no other law in Canada can be used to deal with a serious crisis — and that the special powers granted to police and financial institutions violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“If the government had made different decisions about what record to put before this court — a proper record — then we would not be here,” Choudhry said.Ewa Krajewska, a lawyer for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, noted the government’s public justification for invoking the act referred to “robust” discussions at the Incident Response Group, but that the redacted disclosure of the group’s meeting minutes does not reveal any facts that led to the cabinet decision.
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