While some pro-vaccine Canadians celebrate the crackdown on "Freedom Convoy" protesters, civil rights experts have been cringing.

When announcing the state of emergency last week to deal with the Ambassador Bridge blockade, Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said Ontarians can expect legislation to make it easier for the government to intervene in the future.

"I think that you will see, in the spring legislative session, that we're gonna start to deal with some of these safety problems that are causing people to be on public highways, on public roads, putting themselves and the community in danger," she said.

The news came as a relief to many auto workers who rely on the border crossing for their job — and anyone who's had to listen to truck horns all night.

But lawyers and civil rights activists were quick to caution against an expansion of the state's policing powers.

Does Ontario need new tools?

"We already have laws," said Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, the executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA). "And we already have a charter. And all of those tell us what police and what the government can and cannot do."

Peaceful protests can sometimes block roads or highways. And it's up to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and decades of case law, to determine what constitutes "reasonable limits" on expression, Mendelsohn Aviv said.

Arash Ghiassi, an associate with the law firm Savard Foy, said the problem isn't the number of laws but how they're enforced.

"What we see is a double standard. I've been to many protests where I've seen how police deal with left-wing protests, or protests that are by Indigenous people and people of colour, and they're not shy about deploying small armies equipped with all the technology, and complete with horseback-riding officers," he said.

Many have noted the difference between the Ottawa police's treatment of convoy protesters and the RCMP's approach to Wet'suwet'en land defenders, who blocked access to a pipeline construction site on First Nation land in British Columbia.

While Ottawa cops have been hesitant to mete out more punishment than parking tickets until recent days, RCMP officers kitted out in military gear have used guns, d ogs and at least one chainsaw to break Wet'suwet'en blockades in B.C. Commanders prepared to shoot to kill as they urged officers to "use as much violence ... as you want," the Guardian revealed in 2019.

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca disagreed with Ghiassi and Mendelsohn Aviv, saying the Ambassador Bridge blockade has illustrated that Ontario needs new tools to deal with protests. But he said the law should be crafted with input from Indigenous stakeholders.

"There is a balance to be found there," he said. "But you don't get it by just saying from on high, 'We know what's best for everybody.' You do it through proper collaboration, through genuine consultation and having everybody at the table for that conversation."

New Democrats declined to be interviewed for this piece.

The Alberta connection

Ghiassi said even the emergency order Ontario filed on Feb. 11 is an "attack on civil liberties."

The order allows police to suspend driver's licenses and commercial vehicle registrations for those who block "essential infrastructure."

That includes places like border crossings and airports — but also any "walkway or bridge" — as long as police believe there is a "serious interference" with public safety or well-being.

Premier Doug Ford has said penalties can also include $100,000 fines and up to a year in jail.

"Any time you have a large gathering of people to make a point, there is going to be some disruption," Ghiassi said. "And what's alarming is that ... the premier and the solicitor general have said that they intend to enshrine these same restrictions into permanent law."

Ontario's current emergency order uses language similar to Alberta's Critical Infrastructure Defence Act. The bill was Premier Jason Kenney's response to protests in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en land defenders.

The Alberta act sets out fines of up to $25,000 and six months in jail for those caught having blocked, damaged or trespassed on "essential infrastructure."

Activists, experts and unions have called the law an attack on freedom of expression. Alberta's largest public sector union is attempting to challenge the law in the Supreme Court, arguing it has a "chilling effect" on protest in general.

Make your point and go home

Jones' office didn't respond to a request for details about the legislation she spoke of, which is nothing more than an idea at this point. But she and Ford have talked about what they believe an acceptable protest looks like.

"With a protest, you peacefully make your point and you go back home," the premier said last week.

"We want to make sure that people can safely go to work, access their homes, access their businesses," Jones added at the time.

Historically, the most successful peaceful protests haven't been over quickly or without inconvenience.

Martin Luther King Jr. went to jail 30 times and his methods were deeply unpopular with most Americans at the time. He wrote that the biggest stumbling block toward equality wasn't the Ku Klux Klan but the "white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice."

The convoy protesters' goals are distant from MLK's, but activists worry the government is using the group as cover to cause headaches for other ideologically-opposed groups down the line.

Skyler Williams, the spokesperson for 1492 Land Back Lane, an occupation of a planned development near Caledonia by members of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, predicted an expansion of state power to crack down on protests "absolutely will be" wielded against his group and others.

"You know, we keep hearing about infringing on people's rights," he said. But "since contact," Indigenous people have been focused on protecting their own.

"We want to maintain the rights that my children (have as) their birthright. They have the right to be able to hunt fish. They have the right to their lands, they have the right to clean water. They have the right to be able to live freely on their own lands," he said.

The OPP spent millions last year policing Land Back Lane, "on a group of folks, for lack of a better metaphor, singing kumbaya around the fire," Williams said.

"So to give more power and more money to police services that are already overfunded, that are already pushing the bounds of what what they can do legally ... and to have their reins loosened further is absolutely disgraceful and a waste of taxpayers' dollars."

Mendelsohn Aviv noted that many peaceful, legal Canadian protests, including Black Lives Matter vigils, strikes and environmental actions, have "gone on for longer than a few hours."

"And it is concerning that this situation now would give any government the idea that they can shut down protest," she said.

Ontario’s plan to ‘deal with’ future protests worries lawyers, activists

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