The federal government has racked up nearly $4 million in litigation costs defending its use of the Emergencies Act against the Freedom Convoy — and its court fight isn’t over.
Justice Department figures put Ottawa’s actual and notional costs at approximately $3.99 million across four cases challenging the government’s unprecedented 2022 invocation of the Act.
Ottawa has now lost the central challenge at both the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal.
In January, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a 2024 Federal Court ruling that Ottawa’s invocation of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and beyond its legal authority.
The appeal court also upheld findings that emergency measures violated Charter protections for freedom of expression and against unreasonable search and seizure.
Freedom Convoy leader Tamara Lich blasted the mounting taxpayer bill.
“$4,000,000.00 and counting in a feeble attempt to justify the unjustifiable,” Lich wrote on X. “The worse this gets for the Liberals the deeper they dig in their heels.”
Eva Chipiuk, who served as junior counsel for the Convoy Organizer Group, also criticized Ottawa’s spending.
“Ultimately, this is the government, funded by taxpayers, using public money to fight taxpayers,” Chipiuk told Juno News. “Nearly $4 million in legal costs is impossible to justify.”
She questioned whether Canadians challenging government actions should receive funding when Ottawa can draw on substantially greater public resources.
“When the government disregards the public interest and relies on its virtually unlimited resources, it is not a fair fight, and the promise of government accountability becomes meaningless,” Chipiuk said.
The $3.99 million figure is separate from the Public Order Emergency Commission, which cost approximately $17.5 million.
Access to Information records previously reported by Blacklock’s Reporter showed hourly rates under the inquiry’s lawyer contribution agreements were withheld, while disclosed invoices revealed several six-figure claims.
Among the largest disclosed claims were $202,959 for counsel to the Canadian Constitution Foundation and $180,517 for the Ottawa Coalition of Business Improvement Areas, while the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Convoy Organizer Group had claims of $157,191 and $120,793, respectively.
While the commission concluded in 2023 that the threshold for invoking the Emergencies Act had been met, subsequent Federal Court rulings reached the opposite conclusion — setting up Ottawa’s bid to take the case to the Supreme Court.
Ottawa is now asking the Supreme Court of Canada for permission to appeal.
That potential Supreme Court battle comes as Lich has separately raised concerns about Chief Justice Richard Wagner’s past comments about the Freedom Convoy.
Weeks after the government invoked the Emergencies Act in 2022, Wagner told Le Devoir that the protest showed “the beginning of anarchy” and described citizens as being taken “hostage” by demonstrators.
Wagner later declined to recuse himself from a separate Supreme Court case involving Freedom Convoy protesters, maintaining his earlier comments did not concern the legal issues before the Court. Lich responded: “Canadians deserve a judiciary free of Chief Justice Wagner.”
Wagner has defended judicial independence and warned against portraying courts as partisan actors, saying a judiciary “sheltered from all politicization” is essential to the rule of law.
With Ottawa now seeking a Supreme Court appeal, the nearly $4 million taxpayer-funded legal battle could grow further.
When do Trudeau/Freeland go to jail?
Why is this costing taxpayers dollar one! Doesn't the government have an entire phalanx of lawyers on permanent salary? Why not recruit a few from that brigade? And, by the way, according to Skid Marx School of Accounting, is this a Capital Expense or an Operating cost?