This is the second session in our "After the Convoy" series, which reflects on the legality and legitimacy of the federal government's response to the Freedom Convoy in February 2022.
Lecture Abstract:
The concept of necessity has always been central to claims of emergency power. But the novel design of Canada’s Emergencies Act - which brings emergency power under the rule of law - means necessity functions in novel ways too. Drawing out key sources of necessity’s inherent ambiguity, this lecture develops a set of heuristic tools to clarify claims of necessity. Because these are key elements of the Act’s thresholds, the heuristics proposed may assist both future decision makers and those tasked with holding them to account.