The invocation of the Emergencies Act did great harm to civic resilience in Canada. It created a huge amount of mistrust in the government.
Regular Canadians were donating to a political cause. They were not necessarily donating to anything that was breaking the law or intending to break the law. They wanted to have their voices heard. Instead of going out and speaking with people who had these particular concerns or trying to address them in policy, the government decided to use an act that is normally reserved for extreme situations such as insurrections or wars, in order to create unprecedented laws that froze people's bank accounts. This has caused an immense amount of harm to civic resilience. People need to be able to donate to political causes without fearing that they will not be able to pay their grocery bills or rent.
Four judges of the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal found that the invocation of the act was unreasonable—the requirements of the act were not met, and using it violated charter rights. Now the government has appealed. We're hoping the Supreme Court of Canada agrees with the other four judges who have already looked at this question.