Supreme Court refuses to hear COVID vaccine travel cases

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In February 2022, Canadians from across the country converged on Ottawa as part of the Freedom Convoy. The movement, a protest against COVID-19 mandates and lockdowns, was spurred by truckers pushing back against a cross-border vaccine mandate before spiralling into an all-encompassing movement against government restrictions.

On Thursday night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms lawyer Allison Pejovic joined the show to discuss the Supreme Court's decision to reject hearing a case challenging COVID-era travel restrictions, which was brought forward by former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Brian Peckford and People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier.

After Ezra said the government learns its lesson from the pandemic — they'll implement restrictions again because they saw they can get away with it — Allison explained how, like the Freedom Convoy protesters who were told they should address their grievances with COVID mandates and lockdowns through the court system, the travel mandate arguments will never be heard:

We filed our application in court in February of 2022 and we had five expert witnesses on our side. We were partnered with another applicant who had four experts. The government came back with numerous experts, and they were all cross-examined in a short time period in May and June 2022, and we had a court date of October.

So, we were able to get filed and before the court for that Charter hearing in less than a year. We all moved very quickly; the Crown moved very quickly, we worked well together, and we were still unable to get this case heard. 

You're quite right, it does send a message to Canadians. You know, you can dislike the public health orders all you want, but you may never get to challenge them in court.