Page 49 - ACTL Journal Win24

The federal government eventually took action when on February 14, 2022 Prime Minister Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act. Under the Act, the Cabinet of Canada can declare a national emergency in response to an urgent and critical situation that cannot be dealt with by an existing law.
The declaration of a state emergency leads to extraordinary temporary powers being afforded to the government. Po- lice, in this instance, were given the authority to shut down a range of protests; and financial institutions were required to turn over personal financial information to authorities and to freeze bank accounts.
On February 23, Prime Minister Trudeau revoked the dec- laration of an emergency.
And so what about the aftermath? The use of extraordinary powers, governmental powers, unchecked by the judiciary, has the potential to destroy fundamental tenets of a democ- racy. Thus the legal threshold for using the emergency pow-
ers is intentionally high. And when all is said and done and the emergency is declared to have come to an end, Canadi- an law requires an immediate review to determine whether the government met the very high threshold for invoking these extraordinary powers.
The review – a public inquiry known as a commission – was led by Justice Paul Rouleau, a former judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal. Legal all-stars, Fellows Jeffrey Leon, Tom Curry, and Brian Gover, were key players in
the commission, and, at the Annual Meeting in San Di- ego, they laid out the key facts and shared their insights of this important event.
Brian, and members of his firm, formed part of a counsel team representing the federal government. Brian’s primary responsibility was assisting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and witnesses from the Prime Minister’s Office in prepar- ing to give their evidence. Tom represented former Ottawa
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