Status: 02/15/2022 00:43
In view of the trucker protests, Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau has used an emergency law for the first time. Vehicles are said to be towed away and bank accounts frozen. Trudeau ruled out the use of the military.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that he will end the blockades of opponents of the corona measures by means of an emergency law. “The federal government has invoked the emergency law to supplement the provincial and territorial capacity to deal with the blockades and occupations,” he said at a news conference.
Passed in 1988 but never implemented, the law briefly gives the Liberal prime minister the power to override civil liberties to restore public order.
Measures limited in time and geographically
With so-called “freedom” convoys, truck drivers are currently not only blocking border crossings, but also the capital Ottawa. “These blockades are illegal and if you’re still participating, now is the time to go home,” Trudeau said after a virtual meeting with Canadian provincial leaders. He ruled out the use of the military, saying the emergency response “will be limited in time and geographically, and appropriate and proportionate to the threats they are designed to address.”
“Consider yourself warned,” said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. “If your vehicle is used in these lockdowns, your company accounts will be frozen. Insurance on your vehicle will be suspended. Send your trucks home.” Freeland, who is also finance minister, announced the government would also target crowdfunding sites used to support the blockades.
A truck blocks a road near the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.
Image: AFP
Important border bridge cleared over the weekend
On Friday, Trudeau said all options were on the table to end the “unlawful” demonstrations that had been going on for up to three weeks and were hampering the country’s economic recovery. At the weekend, the authorities had already cleared the important Ambassador border bridge, which connects the Canadian province of Ontario with the US metropolis of Detroit.
On Monday they discovered guns and handguns and “large quantities of ammunition” in several trucks at a blocked border crossing between Coutts in the state of Alberta and the US state of Montana. A total of eleven suspects were arrested. “The group is said to have been prepared to use force against the police if attempts were made to disrupt the blockade,” the police said.
The actions of the truck drivers had started in protest against the vaccination requirement at border crossings, which had been introduced by Canada and the USA in mid-January. Unvaccinated Canadian truck drivers must therefore go into a 14-day quarantine when returning from the USA, while US drivers without a vaccination are not allowed into the country at all.