CALGARY – Lawyers have of the Federal Court of Canada's October a constitutional challenge of the federal government’s travel ban.
Lawyers for former Newfoundland Premier Brian Peckford and People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier have appealed on the grounds that the Federal Court Judge unreasonably failed to exercise her discretion to hear and decide the constitutional challenge to the travel mandate, and erred in her determination that judicial economy considerations outweighed the important public interest and uncertainty in the law.
“The travel mandate represents one of the most egregious infringements of Canadians’ mobility rights in Canadian history,” said Allison Pejovic, one of the lawyers for the appellants.
“Canadians need to have confidence in our justice system,” she added. “It is a profound injustice for millions of Canadians to be denied a court ruling on the lawfulness of the federal government’s prohibition on their travel overseas or across our large country in a practical way.”
Days before the constitutional hearing to the federal government’s travel ban was supposed to be heard on Oct. 31, the Federal Court notified the lawyers that the travel ban challenge wouldn’t be heard because it was “moot.” In the , Associate Chief Justice Jocelyne Gagne ruled that the use of judicial resources for a five-day hearing, when the travel ban had since been lifted, outweighed the public interest in having the case heard on the merits.
The federal government fought two separate lawsuits against its imposed travel ban, which was called one of the strongest vaccination mandates for travellers in the world. In August, the Liberal government said the lawsuit was moot after they suspended the travel ban in June 2022. The federal government, however, suspended – not cancelled – the mandate, which means they could bring it back at any time.
In October 2021, the federal government had mandated that anyone travelling by air, train, or ship, must have had the required number of COVID-19 vaccines in order to travel.
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