A civil liberties group says the federal government has yet to prove that the legal threshold to invoke the Emergencies Act earlier this year to address the Freedom Convoy protests was met, which will be the group’s focus in an upcoming public hearing.
The Public Order Emergency Commission is scheduled to begin the hearing on Oct. 13 to examine the events that led to the declaration of the public emergency on Feb. 14. The hearing in Ottawa will run until Nov. 25, the commission said in a news release issued on Oct. 11. A final report is to be published in February 2023.
Cara Zwibel, director of the fundamental freedoms program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), said her group will participate in the hearing “with an open mind,” but noted that the commission needs to scrutinize the constitutionality of Ottawa’s decision to invoke the Act….