Friday, January 16, 2026

Emergencies Act Invocation Deemed Unreasonable and Unconstitutional

Federal Court of Appeal Upholds Landmark Ruling

The over-reach has been slapped down twice

In a unanimous decision released today, the Federal Court of Appeal (2026 FCA 6) has upheld the 2024 Federal Court ruling by Justice Richard Mosley, confirming that the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act in February 2022 — to address the Freedom Convoy protests — was unreasonable, ultra vires (beyond legal authority), and infringed key provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The three-judge panel, writing per curiam (as "the Court"), dismissed all government appeals, reinforcing strict limits on extraordinary emergency powers. This marks a significant judicial check on executive overreach, particularly in the context of protests rooted in opposition to COVID-era policies like vaccine mandates and restrictions.

The Core Finding: No Reasonable Grounds for Invocation


The court concluded that Cabinet lacked reasonable grounds to believe a "national emergency" or "threat to the security of Canada" existed under the Act's narrow definitions (drawing from national security legislation like the CSIS Act). Ordinary laws and provincial/police authorities were sufficient to handle the situation.

Key quotes from the decision capture the essence: "The decision to invoke the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and ultra vires."

"The government did not demonstrate that it had reasonable grounds to believe that a threat to national security or a national emergency existed within the meaning of the Act, or that existing laws were unable to resolve the situation."

"As disturbing and disruptive as the blockades and the 'Freedom Convoy' protests in Ottawa could be, they fell well short of a threat to national security."

"First of all, there was no evidence that the lives, health or safety of the people living in Ottawa were endangered (as annoying, stressful and concerning as the protests were)."The ruling stresses Parliament's deliberate design of the Emergencies Act — post-War Measures Act — with, "narrowly defined terms to constrain the executive’s use of its extraordinary powers, that amount to a temporary amendment of the Constitution in times of national emergency."

Charter Violations: Freedom of Expression and Privacy


The court affirmed that temporary measures under the Act violated Charter rights in ways not justified under section 1 (reasonable limits).

Section 2(b) – Freedom of Expression


The Regulations criminalized mere attendance or participation in protests, even for peaceful individuals not involved in violence or breaches of the peace. This overbroad approach chilled political dissent tied to COVID policy opposition.

"The Regulations thus criminalized mere attendance at the protest by anyone, whether or not they participated in the violent conduct or otherwise breached the peace."

Section 8 – Protection Against Unreasonable Search or Seizure


The Economic Order allowed banks to freeze accounts based on imprecise information (e.g., news or social media reports), without clear criteria, individualized assessment, or judicial oversight. This was deemed arbitrary and overbroad. 

There was a "lack of rigour" in identifying targets, rendering the seizures unreasonable.

These infringements were not minimally impairing or proportionate — less restrictive options existed under regular laws.

Broader Implications


While focused solely on the 2022 public order emergency (not broader COVID public health measures under other statutes), the decision implicitly critiques escalation to extreme powers amid policy dissent. It serves as a precedent: emergencies must meet high, objective thresholds, with transparency, justification, and Charter respect.

As one advocate noted, "Legal thresholds do not bend... even in times of crisis, no government is above the law."

The government may seek Supreme Court leave to appeal, but today's ruling stands as a victory for rule of law and fundamental freedoms.

Managing Editor & Author: Mack McColl | Research & Draft Assistance: Grok (built by xAI) Published on McCollMagazine.com - Independent Journalism since 2012

Canada's Salmon Industry in Crisis

 

Key Stats:

Saturday, January 10, 2026

Valence: The One Shot At Eternity

Is valence geometry or does it perform another way


Because valence is the only part of you that continues as pattern — the only part that propagates beyond your own being — it is probably the highway you take to eternity. It shapes how you move through the world. It shapes how the world moves through you. It shapes the echoes of your existence. Your non‑ceasing, endless, eternal existence.

There is a quiet truth humming beneath every moment of your life, and it isn’t mystical, moral, or metaphorical. It’s structural. It’s the thing you’ve been using without knowing its name. It’s the thing shaping your reactions, your relationships, your memories, the meaning of your existence.

It’s valence — the invisible architecture of your personal individual existence.

Monday, January 5, 2026

From Caracas Fortress to NYC Cell:

The Bizarre Non-Regime-Change in Venezuela

Maduro arrives in NYC wearing his lucky hat

In an age dominated by sanctions, cyber operations, proxy conflicts, and multilateral diplomacy, unilaterally launching a high-tech military raid into another country's capital to extract its sitting head of state is jarring.

Monday, December 22, 2025

Energy, Risk, and Invisible Human Architecture

These guys make your life possible

When you strip away the slogans, the protests, the political theatre, and the corporate branding, the global energy system reduces to something starkly human: a network of people working in places the rest of society will never see.

2026 Quebec Election An Unspoken Dialogue

Liberal leader is interim

As Quebec turns attention to its fixed election date in October 2026, the province finds itself in a political climate that outsiders routinely misread. This is not because the facts are obscure, but because the grammar of Quebec politics rarely survives translation. The province’s political culture is not bilingual; it is bi-cognitive. And if you don’t comprehend the unspoken architecture beneath the words, you will misunderstand everything built on top.

Friday, December 19, 2025

Land-Based Salmon Farming: Latest Bankruptcy

Follows Repeated Land-based Failures


Highly successful Kitasoo Seafoods in the Village of Klemtu

West Coast Salmon, a major proposed land-based salmon farming project in Nevada backed by prominent industry figures and planning for 50,000 tonnes of annual production, filed for bankruptcy on December 18, 2025—before the facility even advanced beyond initial planning stages.

This latest collapse adds to a growing list of high-profile setbacks in land-based recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) for anadromous salmon species—particularly beyond the brood stock and production up to smolt stages, where the technology falters most dramatically in attempts at full grow-out to market size.

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Could the U.S. Northwest Unlock Bitumen's Full Potential?

Alberta's Pacific Pivot:



Alberta Premier Danielle Smith made headlines this week by floating a new energy export contingency, which has the remarkable tenor of viability: if domestic hurdles block a new pipeline through British Columbia, she's open to routing Alberta oil southward through Montana, Idaho, and into Washington or Oregon ports for export to Asia.

Friday, December 12, 2025

Seafood Section of McColl Magazine

B.C.’s Salmon Farmers Call for Reconsideration of Discovery Islands Decision: Feb. 23, 2021 - Based on the findings of an independent economic analysis released today, B.C.’s salmon farming community is calling on the federal government to set aside its decision to force the closure of farms in the Discovery Islands area and engage a new process.

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Cease and Desist the Interference in Tlowitsis Jurisdiction

 

Tlowitsis Nation> See News and Events in top menu for more Tlowitsis news
NEWS RELEASE -- We, the Tlowitsis Nation, write this declaration as a firm statement of our rights and jurisdiction over our Territory. As the rightful title holders of this land, we have the authority to govern and manage all resources within it, including our trees, water, minerals and other natural resources. This authority is grounded in our Indigenous legal orders, and affirmed by Canadian constitutional and international law, and we will defend it fiercely.

We have the right and responsibility to decide how our lands and resources are managed, and how the resulting benefits contribute to the well-being of our People. Non-rights holders have been given platforms to publicly interfere in our affairs. Media outlets and government are engaging with individuals and groups who hold no legal authority in our Territory, publishing misinformation, and disregarding Indigenous governance laws and protocols.

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Is Carney Telling the Truth?

Asking if he's gone full Pinocchio

Mark Carney says, on X.COM, 
@MarkJCarney ·  "Unemployment is down, jobs and wages are up. We’re building big and empowering more Canadians with new careers. 
Even with strong global headwinds, there is encouraging progress — and we are just getting started." 

Saturday, December 6, 2025

Trump's Shadow and Canada's Uneven Footing

Liberal Map of North America
 Walking on Fractured Foundations

Calgary, AB -- While Trump's second term reaches the eleventh month, the U.S.-Canada relationship isn't strained. It's muddied, messy, costly, and an exercise in economic sabotage and national soul-searching, on both sides, but Canada is finding it the most painful. Ottawa's halls of power used to echo climate threats, now it's tariff threats that have already cost billions, but the real rot festers from within: a federal government fumbling through political quagmire, a growing sense of Western alienation to surpass that of Quebec, and a sentiment metastasizing into outright separatism. (Metastasizing. Really spreading fast, usually medical vernacular. Grok needs to be more circumspect.)

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Monday, December 1, 2025

Namgis Burial Grounds in Alert Bay, BC

 Dialogue on Development, and Indigenous Economic Development, and Reconciliation: First Nation Economic Development is the Pathway to Progress for All Canadians

TAKE THE BUSINESS PULSE OF CANADA

Twenty-Two Letters and One Hell of a Hangover

Now with extra Phoenician tears


Behold the greatest self-inflicted wound in merchandising history.
1200 BCE. Tyre and Sidon, the original crypto-bros of the Mediterranean, are absolutely printing money.

Saturday, November 29, 2025

Quebec banning public prayer

Canada Banning Public Prayer

The Quebec part of Canada at any rate

Shhhh Keep this quiet. 

I wasn't sure I heard it correctly. It almost snuck past me. My good friend, Grok xAI, who tries hard to get it right, answered my query about Quebec's new laws coming to ban public prayer in the province. 

Pundit on-side with Quebec ban on public prayer

Thursday, November 27, 2025

Peace, Order, and Good Government?

Not Lately.

Pipeline dialogue moves to MOU

Alberta gets to move more oil
Rt. Hon Brushy Hand Dismisser decimates his Cabinet over oil, meh.

The Canadian Constitution opens with a modest promise: “Peace, Order, and good Government,” but after a decade of Liberal rule (first under Justin Trudeau, now under Mark Carney), that promise feels like a relic of the past, which wasn't all that long ago. 

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

The A B C's of Debt and Ritual Human Sacrifice

The Alphabet’s First Killer Apps



The story we tell ourselves is that writing began with poetry, prayer, or philosophy is a polite fiction. The real story is colder, older, and carved in stone. The alphabet’s very first killer applications were two, and only two:


1. Debt
2. Ritual human sacrifice

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Carthage: The Superpower That Industrialized Child Sacrifice

Estimates range from 20,000 to 100,000+ individual child urns (some periods averaged one child every single day).

Location

Modern Tunis, Tunisia: a perfect natural harbor on the north-African coast, halfway between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Levant. By 500 BCE it controlled the entire central Mediterranean trade routes and had turned the western sea into a Carthaginian lake.

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