But Who Gets Punished?

We live in a dictatorship.

Change my mind:

What was lacking in Ottawa, the court observed, was not legal authority but policing resources and co-ordination. That is not a national emergency. It is a failure of governance.

Equally damning was the government’s disregard for provincial opposition. Most provinces warned that invoking the Emergencies Act would be unnecessary and divisive. Cabinet failed to meaningfully engage with that opposition.

“In a federation,” the court wrote, “provinces should be left to determine for themselves how best to deal with a critical situation, especially when it largely calls for the application of the Criminal Code by police forces.” The judges emphasized that if the situation does not exceed capacity or authority of the provinces, “they should be left to their own devices.”

The regulations enacted after the declaration fared no better under constitutional scrutiny.

The court ruled that the sweeping ban on assemblies violated freedom of expression by criminalizing mere attendance at protests, including peaceful expression on Parliament Hill. Individuals could face up to five years in prison “not because of anything they were doing,” but because someone else nearby might breach the peace. That, the judges held, was grossly overbroad and unconstitutional.

Perhaps most chilling was the ruling on the financial measures. Banks were compelled to share Canadians’ private financial information with police without a warrant, without notice, and without recourse. Financial institutions were effectively deputized as agents of the state and told to “leverage the news” and social media to identify suspects.

The court found that this ad hoc system “lacked procedural safeguards” and allowed privacy to be invaded based on “potentially unfounded, subjective beliefs.” It violated the Charter’s protection against unreasonable search and could not be justified.

This decision now stands as binding precedent. It places real legal constraints on future governments and ensures that the Emergencies Act cannot be repurposed as a political convenience. It restores the act to what Parliament intended: a narrow, exceptional tool, not a blunt instrument against dissent.

The government spent millions defending the indefensible. It lost completely. And in doing so, it handed Canadians one of the most important civil liberties rulings in a generation.

That is worth celebrating.

I ask again: who gets punished?

The government will simply do the same thing over again because nothing short of a Gdansk moment will stop it.