Windsor's mayor admits this week's federal court ruling on using the Emergencies Act during the convoy protests took him aback.
Drew Dilkens testified before the Public Order Emergency Commission last year, in which Justice Paul Rouleau ruled the federal government met the legal threshold to invoke the Act.
Earlier this week, Justice Richard Mosley contradicted that finding when he found it unjustified in a case brought forward by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, and Kristen Nagle of Canadian Frontline Nurses.
Mosley ruled the one-week blockade of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor and the three-week occupation of downtown Ottawa was illegal, criticized inaction by the Ottawa Police and the province of Ontario, but also wrote freezing of bank accounts violated the protesters' Charter Right against unreasonable search and seizure. Unlike the public inquiry's finding, Mosley's ruling is legally binding.
Soon after the ruling became public, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the federal government would appeal it.
"I'm glad to see the federal government is appealing the matter to the Supreme Court," said Dilkens. "I sure hope they come up with a decision that reflects the decision that Justice Rouleau came up with."
Mosley's decision is no slam dunk for those who participated in the Convoy protests. His conclusion states, "I had and continue to have considerable sympathy for those in government who were confronted with this situation. Had I been at their tables at that time, I may have agreed it was necessary to invoke the Act. And I acknowledge that in conducting my judicial review of that decision, I am revisiting the time with the benefit of hindsight and a more extensive record of the facts and law than that which was before the GIC."
"To the day I die, I will be a person that says that decision by the federal government was the right decision," said Dilkens, unconvinced by the ruling. "You have to look at what was happening in Ottawa, in Windsor, Essex, in Coutts, Alberta and put all of those things together to really come up with the reason why the federal government made the decision they did at the time. I would be very surprised if our Supreme Court doesn't come up with a different decision after reviewing all of the information."
Whether he has concerns Mosley's ruling could encourage future blockades and occupations, Dilkens didn't want to say. He did say invoking the Emergencies Act had no bearing on peaceful, legal protest.
"Protest is okay, and even at the time, we were saying that it's okay to protest, that it is a constitutionally protected right. What wasn't protected was blocking a roadway to have your protest, a roadway that is the access point to the busiest commercial border crossing between Canada and the United States," he explained. "If that had been a protest on the sidewalk adjacent to the Ambassador Bridge, that would be one thing. It wasn't that."