Personally I don't, but the protest wouldn't / shouldn't have blown out of proportion if the local authorities wouldn't have let it degenerate to this point in the first place.
Absolutely not. If the judge can explain to me how the federal government could have taken care of this otherwise. The municipal and provincial governments were absolutely not doing anything about it.
I think people are missing one important point which is that if this judge was at the table during the freedumb protest, he would've approved the use of it. This is all in hindsight now, but at the time, he would've agreed. Also - the use of it in Ottawa and Windsor he agrees with, just not for the entirety of Canada.
As I understand it it was still only a police response and the army was not called in. Why couldn't the municipalities just call in the police of their own accord?
The ruling ignores the extenuating circumstances and, in this age where even the rule of law bends seemingly for political gains, reeeally smells suspect.
What I am unclear about, as a non Canadian, is what the ruling means. For instance is there anything about the ruling, as it stands, to prevent or impede the government, in any way, from invoking the emergency act in future as long as they have a majority in parliament? If the ruling has no teeth why does the government care about it. Why even appeal it?
The second interview of a CBC piece answered some similar questions I had. This ruling provides precedence and can stop a future invocation of the Emergencies Act in its tracks through an injunction from the Federal Court of Appeal, if it's granted.
The government is appealing the decision because they believe the invocation was reasonable and justified. The Liberals are currently behind in the polls, so politically it's within the government's interest to appeal this. The act itself is decades old and never invoked prior to this so both the civil liberty groups and the government are probably keen on getting clarification on the legal usage of the act from the Supreme Court of Canada.
Personally, I fully support the usage of the act. What I found unreasonable was the lack of accountability with the provincial police.