Should it be enough to punt any administration on its own? Arguably yes. Even in the world of crime freezing peoples assets is a fairly big deal. That they didn’t meet the legal threshold to employ it in the first place, is a bigger deal. Forest for the trees imo. EMAs are the nuclear option.
The bank freezing is the one that needs to be ridden down the hardest, in my opinion.
I agree with the judge in paragraph 358:
Of particular concern from a section 1 justification perspective is that there was no
standard applied to determine whether someone should be the target of the measures or process
to allow them to question that determination. As described by Superintendent Beaudoin in cross-
examination, it was all informal and ad hoc.
Freezing bank accounts can be justified, but the way it was done was a shit show and that can't be ignored.
It was, in fact, more of an
ad hoc clusterfuck than I originally thought. Some kind of update to the law specifying how that can be done in the future and what safeguards would be put in place to prevent it spilling out of control are necessary.
The reality is they had weeks to come up with a plan and contingencies. Weeks in which lawyers, advisors, ( like Bill Blair) and more would have conferred. They got it badly wrong.
Lots of people are going to disagree with that last part - including Justice Mosley.
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 that it was necessary to
invoke the Act. And I acknowledge that in conducting judicial review of that decision, I am
revisiting that time with the benefit of hindsight and a more extensive record of the facts and law
than that which was before the GIC.
He acknowledges that this legal analysis isn't one that was even possible at the time, but should still be undertaken because it serves the public interest for a court to review what actions were taken and weigh in on their effects.
Some can choose to blame Ford, but welcome to politics and reality, you made the bed..How much does the Liberal Party even try to work with Cons? In the house?. Fuck forget actually working with the Cons, like people simply never answer questions here and just deflect. One rule for thee, but not for us I guess
At the end of the day. They chose and they alone, to use a governments very heavy, very broad powers under an Emergency Act. When realistically all they had to do was say “So what,,we will deflate their tires, give them the time day”.
And they - or another government - may have to do so again, which was a major reason Justice Mosley weighed in.