— Trudeau: Fresh Tools ‘Time-Limited, Geographically Specific’
— Trudeau: Not Calling in Military As Solution To Ending Illegal Occupations
By Max Sato
(MaceNews) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that he has invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time ever, which will give the federal government temporary 30-day extraordinary powers to help end blockades at US borders by truckers protesting Covid mandates.
Trudeau told a news conference that his government will use “fresh tools” under the law that are “time-limited and geographically specific” and aimed at protecting Canadians from “illegal blockades,” which are “weakening the country.”
Trudeau said he is “not calling in the military as a solution” to the situation. The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), the federal police service, will support municipal and provincial police forces in dealing with the illegal occupations, he added.
“Even though the Emergencies Act applies to the entire country, it is targeted, time-limited and geographically specific based on need as to where it will actually be felt and have an impact on the ground,” including the need to clear the main US trade route in southern Ontario, Trudeau said.
He stressed that Canada remains a law-binding country and that peaceful protest should be encouraged.
Justice Minister David Lametti also told reporters that the emergency measures will take effect immediately and that the Parliament will review them.
The government is also cracking down on financial support for illegal activity that is linked to the anti-mandate protest.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that under the Emergencies Act, crowdfunding platforms and the payment service providers they use must register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), the national financial intelligence agency, and that they must also report large and suspicious transactions to FINTRAC.
“The illegal blockades have highlighted the fact that crowdfunding platforms, and some of the payment service providers they use, are not fully captured under the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act,” she told a news conference.
Earlier, Trudeau told his Liberal Party caucus on Monday he would invoke the never-before-used Emergencies Act in consultation with the provincial and territorial premiers, public broadcaster CBC and other news organizations said, quoting unnamed sources.
The Emergencies Act replaced, in 1988, the controversial War Measures Act, which was invoked in 1970 by then Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Justin Trudeau’s father, to counter attacks by a militant Quebec separatist group called FLQ.
Canadian automakers and other firms have been calling for an end to the truckers’ blockades, which have choked off shipments to and from the US, a key export market and a supplier of parts and goods.
The Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit was reopened on Sunday after a week-long blockade. The reopening follows a state of emergency declared in the province of Ontario and an injunction granted by an Ontario judge to remove protesters.
The “Freedom Convoy” protesters have occupied the core of the nation’s capital, Ottawa, for over two weeks. The mayor of Ottawa has been negotiating with organizers to move their trucks out of residential areas.
Protesters also shut down smaller border crossings in the provinces of Alberta and Manitoba last week and blocked the Pacific Highway border in British Columbia over the weekend.
What is challenging for the Trudeau government is that the protests have been joined by other Canadians feeling fatigue, frustration, and isolation from on-and-off restrictions around the pandemic. Officials have also expressed concern that some police officers have not been enforcing the mandates as expected.