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ARTICLE · 09 MARCH 2026

Can Government Declare An Emergency To Silence Dissent? (Podcast)

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What happens when a government turns its most powerful emergency legislation against its own citizens for honking horns?

CanadaGovernment, Public Sector
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What happens when a government turns its most powerful emergency legislation against its own citizens for honking horns? 

This episode examines one of the most consequential constitutional rulings in recent Canadian legal history: the Federal Court of Appeal's decision finding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act against the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest was unlawful. 

Gavin Tighe and Stephen Thiele dissect the court's rigorous analysis of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically the Section 2 protections for political speech and Section 8 protections against unreasonable search and seizure, and ask the harder question: when government wields extraordinary power and achieves its objectives, does a court ruling after the fact actually matter? 

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