Feds spent more than $3.7 million in legal fees related to invoking emergency law, Justice Department says

The federal government spent more than $3.7 million in legal fees related to invoking the emergency law in February 2022 in response to the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa at the time, the Justice Department says.

Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree, Parliamentary Secretary to Justice Minister David Lametti, said in the House of Commons on June 14 that the total legal costs associated with expenditure incurred by the government for external legal advice on “work related to the Emergency Act appeal”, together with the subsequent legal action resulting therefrom, amounted to just over $ 3,756,458.

“This amount includes external legal costs associated with the Public Order Emergency Commission, which had a timeline that was squeezed by law,” Anandasangaree said, adding that the costs were calculated based on information in the internal systems of the ministry of Justice from May 4, 2023.

Anandasangaree provided the information in the House in response to an order document ask filed by Conservative MP Dane Lloyd on April 28, asking for the total amount of “legal costs incurred by the government in connection with invoking the emergency bill” across all federal departments.

Conservative MP and public safety critic Raquel Dancho responded to the more than $3.7 million in legal fees by saying it was “a waste” on Ottawa’s part.

“This is completely unacceptable and a misuse of taxpayers’ resources,” she told the Toronto Star in a June 24 report.

The Epoch Times contacted the Justice Department for comment on the legal fees, but did not immediately hear back.

The federal government invoked the Emergency Act in February 2022, giving itself and the police additional powers to clear Freedom Convoy protests in downtown Ottawa.

Critics and opposition conservatives complained that the government had invoked the law, saying it fell short of the legal threshold to do so.

Ontario Court of Appeal Judge Paul Rouleau, who was the commissioner of the Public Order Emergency Commission investigating the government’s use of the emergency law, ruled in February this year that the federal government had set the “very high threshold reached required for the act to be invoked.”

“I have concluded that when the decision to invoke the Act was made on February 14, 2022, the Cabinet had reasonable grounds to believe that a national emergency existed due to threats to Canada’s security that prevented the taking of special necessitated temporary measures,” Rouleau said on Feb. 17.

Omid Ghoreishi contributed to this report.