A federal judge said that the Liberal government's use of the Emergency Act in early 2022 to clear protesters from the convoys was unreasonable.

The case was brought by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, and individuals who argued that Ottawa did not meet the legal threshold when relying on the legislation, which had not been used before.

The two groups shared copies of the decision online.

Thousands of angry protesters against the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccine mandates, descended on Ottawa in January 2022 and shut down border crossings elsewhere. Protesters stopped large vehicles on the main streets of the capital for nearly a month and continuously honked their horns for several days.

For declaring a public order emergency, the Emergency Act requires an emergency to arise from threats to Canada's security so serious that it constitutes a national emergency. The law is subject to CSIS's definition of the threats facing Canada's security.

Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley also said that the situation created by the protests did not reach this threshold.

He said in his statement: "I have concluded that the decision to issue the proclamation lacks marks of reasonableness — justification, transparency, and clarity — and was not justified concerning the relevant factual and legal restrictions that should have been considered."