(MaceNews) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is considering using the Emergency Act, which would limit civil liberties and give the federal government temporary powers to help end blockades at US borders by truckers protesting Covid mandates, news reports said.
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.