The Federal Court of Appeal of Canada ruled that the Canadian federal government's 2022 invocation of the Emergencies Act was 'unreasonable' and beyond the government's legal authority. The court emphasized that Parliament drafted the law with 'narrowly defined terms' to constrain executive power and ensure emergency measures remain subject to constitutional limits under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The court held the government failed to establish 'reasonable grounds' to believe that 'threats to the security of Canada' and a 'national emergency' existed within the meaning of the Emergencies Act. Key Charter findings included:
• The Emergency Measures Regulations infringed Charter section 2(b) freedom of expression by criminalizing certain protests, and the infringement was not justified under section 1 of the Charter.
• Emergency economic measures, particularly the information-sharing and account-freezing framework, breached section 8 protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association called the ruling a major constraint on future emergency overreach, stating: 'Legal thresholds do not bend, much less break, in exigent circumstances.' This was Canada's first-ever use of the Emergencies Act since its 1988 enactment.