Ian Profiri is JURIST’s Chief Correspondent for Canada. He files this dispatch from Calgary.

To say that it’s been a busy week in the Canadian legal world is an understatement.

For the first time in its history, the Emergencies Act was invoked by the Prime Minister, recognizing that policing efforts to date in the capital city of Ottawa had been basically fruitless, and that the apparent success of protestors in Ottawa had emboldened others to blockade key points and bridges on the US–Canada border.

Justin Trudeau’s action immediately prompted comparison with the 1970 enactment of the Emergencies Act’s predecessor, the War Measures Act (WMA), and the Prime Minister who utilized it in peacetime–Pierre Trudeau, Justin’s father.

Of course, the Emergencies Act is not the WMA; to equate the two gives disservice to the lawmakers who effectively watered-down and constitutionalized the incredibly draconian WMA.

While many politicos (especially south of the border) have attempted to characterize the Emergencies Act as ushering in a new era of martial law and tyranny in the Great White North, the Emergencies Act cannot impose such drama. At most it allows the federal government to coordinate actions in select emergency situations when the tools available are no longer sufficient to address a problem. The Act requires Parliamentary approval, and can only extend for a limited period.

The official proclamation made Monday announced “that a public order emergency exists throughout Canada and necessitates the taking of special temporary measures for dealing with the emergency.” The proclamation explicitly identifies the blockades as one of the threats.

Regulations were published the following day prohibiting the “participat[ion] in a public assembly that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace,” as well as a general prohibition on foreign nationals from entering Canada to participate, and a complete ban from minors participating in the festivities.

An Emergency Economic Measures Order was simultaneously released directing financial institutions across the country to abide by a duty to disclose any financial information related to those participating in the protests, and otherwise prevent their ability to access accounts or make transactions.

All of this is novel, however, and the limits of what Parliament can and cannot do through the Emergencies Act have not been tested in the courts.

The impact of protestors at the Coutts blockade in Alberta was immediate, however. The protestors collectively and quickly announced they would be leaving the area after the announcement was made that the Emergencies Act was to be invoked. What happened the morning after, however, has become another flashpoint for the ongoing debate on policing in Canada.

Tuesday morning, as promised, protestors began packing up their trucks and trailers for the exodus away from the highly controversial blockade. They did leave, but not before hugging and shaking hands with RCMP officers supposedly policing the blockade. The protestors even gave an off-key rendition of the national anthem to salute them. Police officers enjoyed the show; activists and critics were not pleased.

It’s not as if people wanted to see bloodshed – the fact that all parties walked away without violence, especially after it became clear that there were factions within the Coutts blockaders that sought to kill members of the RCMP, was welcomed – but the fact that the RCMP treated these protestors so radically different than other protestors of the past was hard to watch for some.

The comparisons were evident and widely acknowledged. Images and video from Fairy Creek, where in 2021 at least 800 environmentalists attempting to stop the clear-cutting of old-growth forests in BC were pepper-sprayed, beaten, then arrested, were shared en masse. So were images of the recent violent removal of a houseless encampment in Toronto, and the aggressive treatment of Indigenous land defenders.

Most recently, a counter-protest group that erupted in Edmonton in response to a Convoy was quickly shuttled by Edmonton Police Services. Edmonton Police cited the Alberta’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act as reasoning for their removal, nevermind that the Convoy protestors themselves were arguably committing the same offence, clearly visible right behind the officers dividing them from the counter-protestors.

When questioned about the response of the officers, Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee replied that officers “have to be very nimble in terms of dealing with what is deemed the highest priority based upon our deployment of the day.”

Giving credit where credit is due, McFee also announced that EPS officers that vocally supported the Convoys have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. At the very least, EPS’s overall commitment to an image of legislative neutrality remains intact, even if their policing methods remain a problem for their optics.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenny has not been absent during this time. After capitulating to the protestors and instigating the removal of restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, notably against the advice and the concerns of the medical community, Kenny Wednesday signed a letter alongside 15 US governors encouraging US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau to drop the vaccine requirements for truckers, calling the mandate “bad public health theatre.” He later said that anyone who  was angry at the government should direct their anger towards the opposition New Democratic Party and the Alberta Federation of Labour, Alberta’s largest public union, for “trying to force 6-year-olds to wear masks indefinitely.” All this was problematic considering that some of the Coutts protestors had an arms cache, and were apparently prepared to gun down those that opposed them.

Still, tensions have calmed down considerably since the Emergencies Act was invoked. Many people across Canada are happy and relieved that the border is now open and, despite what some provincial Premiers may say, people are still following the guidance of doctors – the actual guidance, not the politically expedient guidance – by masking and generally looking out for one another.

There is another “Freedom Convoy” planned for Saturday in Alberta’s capital city, but it will probably be a relatively uneventful affair. Still, it remains to be seen if any of the provisions under Emergencies Act will come into play in Alberta, and whether calm continues.