Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday that his government is invoking the 1988 Emergencies Act amid the widespread Truckers’ protest or ‘Freedom Convoy’. This is the first time that the Emergencies Act will be put to use by a Canadian Prime Minister. Trudeau seems to have an elaborate plan to quell the protest and is going after individual Canadians involved in the demonstration. The government is also cracking down on crowdfunding platforms and the use of cryptocurrency to raise funds.
Truckers and other demonstrators are protesting against vaccine mandates and Covid-related restrictions on their businesses. 400 to 500 trucks are parked in Ottawa, whereas three border crossings to the United States have been blocked by the Freedom protesters who are in no mood to step back.
While Trudeau has denied any plans to send in troops to clear out the protests and the “illegal blockades”, heavily armed police forces are arresting demonstrators and towing their vehicles.
Also Read: For India, Justin Trudeau’s Crackdown on Canada’s Truckers Reeks of Rank Hypocrisy
Trudeau threatens ‘democracy and civil liberties’
Trudeau’s unprecedented move to invoke national emergency powers in peacetime has not been received well by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association which condemned his moves. It said that the federal government has not met the threshold necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act. “The Act allows government to bypass ordinary democratic processes,” said CCLA. “Emergency legislation should not be normalized. It threatens our democracy and our civil liberties.”
The last time such sweeping powers were invoked during peacetime by a Canadian Prime Minister was when Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, the predecessor to the Emergencies Act, in 1970. At the time, Quebec separatists had kidnapped a provincial cabinet minister and a British diplomat. Before this, the War Measures Act was invoked only during the first and second world wars.
In fact, the premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec, disapprove of this measure. Alberta’s Premier has said that it is “unnecessary” and could be “somewhat counterproductive”. Others had similar concerns given that the powers are susceptible to misuse and can essentially backfire in their provinces.
“I think at this moment it would not help the social climate. There is a lot of pressure right now and I think we have to be careful,” said the Premier of Quebec.
While the Premiers agree with Ontario’s urgency to quell the protests, their statements indicate that they are distancing themselves from Justin Trudeau’s sweeping measure fearing anger among the people and a greater spillover effect of the protests.
Canada is classified as a “full democracy” and ranks among the top five democracies of the world. Trudeau himself has portrayed himself to be a staunch protector of democratic rights and also did not shy away from commenting on the farmers’ protest in India when he said, “Canada will always be ready to defend the right to peaceful protest.” His actions have indeed been hypocritical in this context.
Following the money trail
Trudeau is going after the money trail to plug the resources of the Freedom protesters. Through the emergency powers, the federal government intends to freeze both personal and corporate bank accounts of anyone involved in the protest and it will be able to do so without any court order. Targeting the truckers, the Trudeau government also plans to suspend vehicle insurance for those involved in the Convoy.
More notably, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the federal government is also broadening “terrorist financing” rules to crackdown on cryptocurrencies and crowdfunding platforms, saying “It’s all about the money”.
The demonstrators have so far raised over $18 million even as authorities seek to freeze bank accounts involved in the fundraisers. American platform GiveSendGo, which had earlier rejected the Ontario court’s demand and refused to freeze the funds raised by the truckers, came under a cyberattack and was taken offline. GiveSendGo’s fundraiser had already raised $8.7 million by then. The information about the donors has since been leaked online including names, email addresses, ZIP codes and IP addresses, putting under threat individual Canadian donors.
Before this, American platform GoFundMe froze the funds and deleted the fundraiser of the truckers who had by then raised well above $10 million on the platform. It is these crackdowns that led the donors and demonstrators to look to other options including crypto.
Playing with fire
While Trudeau may appear invincibly strong and formidable in the face of a largely peaceful protest, the numbers of those disillusioned with the liberal leader are only bound to grow in Canada. And while the protest has been about vaccine mandates and other covid regulations, the consensus against Trudeau’s overall leadership is inevitably going to rise as the liberal Prime Minister alienates a large chunk of the Canadian population.
The ‘othering’ of Canadian conservatives has entered full throttle, but today they are more aggressively visible to the world, something Canada earlier lacked owing to a relatively weak and directionless Conservative Party. This shall indeed manifest itself in the coming months and change the face of Canadian politics as we know it. With the current economic crackdowns and arrests of the demonstrators, the Prime Minister may or may not be able to send them all home but what is certain is that he is up against a storm that is only fated to rise.
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