Sixty Days of Silence
Today marks sixty days since the Federal Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that the Canadian government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in February 2022. Tomorrow, March 17, 2026 (Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!), the clock runs out. Under section 58 of the Supreme Court Act, the federal government has sixty days to file an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. After that, the decision stands. The law becomes settled. Justin Trudeau’s government violated Canadians’ constitutional rights, and there will be no further judicial recourse.
The Federal Court of Appeal’s decision stands as vindication of the rule of law against the administrative state’s hunger for unconstrained power. It is worth repeating: the court rejected the notion that government convenience, institutional failures, or public disruption justify suspending civil liberties. Parliament established a high threshold for invoking emergency powers. The executive cannot lower that threshold through creative interpretation just because.
Image: Ezra/TheRebel