OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday invoked the national Emergencies Act to bring to an end the antigovernment blockades he describes as illegal and not about peaceful protest.
The government will use that act to force towing companies to remove big rigs and other vehicles that are blocking highways and other critical infrastructure, establish zones where public assembly is not allowed, and require banks to suspend or freeze accounts suspected of supporting the blockades, including those belonging to companies whose trucks are part of the convoy.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government is "serving notice" to trucking companies with vehicles involved in any of the blockades that they will have their corporate accounts frozen and lose their insurance.
"Consider yourselves warned," she said. "Send your semi-trailers home. The Canadian economy needs them to be doing legitimate work, not to be illegally making us all poorer."
Freeland said every day the Ambassador Bridge was closed $390 million worth of trade was halted. Every day the border remains closed in Coutts, Alta, she said it affects $48 million of trade, and in Emerson, Man., $73 million a day.
The government is invoking the act under the public order section, meaning they believe the blockades are a threat to national security, and as such the act will apply across the country, including provinces where premiers said Monday they did not think it was needed.
Trudeau spoke to premiers by phone Monday morning, following an urgent cabinet meeting Sunday night. He also briefed the Liberal caucus first thing Monday.
"I want to be very clear: the scope of these measures will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address," Trudeau said at a news conference late in the afternoon.
He said it does not involve bringing in the military, or suspending fundamental rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Justice Minister David Lametti said invoking the act will allow cabinet to regulate and prohibit public gatherings in specific places, such as at borders, on roads leading to and from those borders or to other critical infrastructure such as airports, and in Ottawa, where blockades of downtown streets that began Jan. 28 remain in place.
It will also allow cabinet to designate towing companies as essential services to compel them to remove big rigs and other vehicles from the blockades. That is something many companies have refused to do for fear of reprisal from the truckers and others involved in the convoys. Trudeau said clearing trucks at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., on the weekend happened only because of the co-operation of American towing companies.
The orders will heavily target the financing for the convoy, which has in large part come from foreign sources using crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrencies. One of the temporary measures includes adding those entities to Canada's anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws, but Freeland said legislation to make that change permanent will eventually be introduced.
It means platforms like GoFundMe will need to register with Canada's finance intelligence service known as Fintrac and report all large or suspicious transactions.
"It's all about following the money," Freeland said. "It's about putting an end to the funding of these illegal blockades."
Trudeau and Freeland made clear that they believe the protests threaten Canada's economic security and its reputation internationally.
"This siege and these blockades are causing major damage to our economy and are harming our democratic institutions as well as Canada's reputation in the world," Freeland said. "International confidence towards Canada as a good place to invest and do business has been shaken."
The government will also enable the RCMP to enforce municipal bylaws but Trudeau said police forces of record in every jurisdiction will remain the lead, including in Ottawa, where Chief Peter Sloly has repeatedly said he needs more officers to end the blockade.
RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police have been sent to help but it's not clear if more will be deployed or when enforcement in Ottawa might begin.
The act can only be invoked for 30 days but Lametti said he's hoping it won't take that long to bring things under control.
This is the first time the Emergencies Act has been invoked since it came into force in 1988.
NOT ALL PREMIERS ON BOARD
Not every premier is on board with the idea.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson all said Monday they do not think the added powers are needed in their provinces.
B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said the province supports using the Emergencies Act to deal with protests.
Farnworth made the comment in response to questions at a news conference in Victoria on changes to auto insurance policies.
He said the province is “supportive of this measure [Trudeau] feels he needs to deal with this situation back east.”
The protest by antigovernment demonstrators blockading Ottawa city streets around Parliament Hill is now in its third week and has spread to several Canada-U.S. border crossings.
In B.C., the main route to the Pacific Highway border crossing in Surrey was closed Saturday afternoon after protesters opposed to vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 measures broke through RCMP barricades and began driving the wrong way down 176 Street.
Four people were arrested Sunday for mischief at the Pacific Highway protests against COVID-19 mandates.
The crossing was open Monday, but the Canada Border Services Agency said the highway leading to it remains blocked off by police, forcing travellers and truckers to cross elsewhere.
The Pacific crossing is the main border for truckers in the province, and highway cameras show long lines of commercial trucks at the Aldergrove and Sumas Border crossings farther east.
ABOUT CANADA'S EMERGENCIES ACT
The Emergencies Act allows a government to invoke temporary measures, including barring people from gathering or travelling to certain locations, to protect national security, public order and public welfare.
It has never been used before. Trudeau consulted the premiers about using it in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly two years ago, but has said repeatedly it was not needed because the powers to address the pandemic were already in place.
The Emergencies Act replaced the War Measures Act in 1988 and is more limited in what it can do, including requiring parliamentary oversight. All measures invoked under the Emergencies Act must also comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The War Measures Act was used three times, including in both the First World War and Second World War, and during the FLQ crisis in Quebec in 1970.
On Monday, an Ontario judge granted an injunction to enforce noise and idling bylaws related to the ongoing anti-vaccine mandate protests in Ottawa.
City solicitor David White requested the injunction Friday, saying the protesters were flagrantly violating bylaws against relentless noise, idling of trucks, setting off fireworks, and open air fires.
The injunction, which does not have an end date, was designed to give the police and bylaw officers an extra tool to enforce city bylaws, lawyers acting for the city of Ottawa said Monday.
For the third Saturday in a row, areas around the B.C. legislature in Victoria swelled with protesters supporting the truckers’ convoy that continues to occupy downtown Ottawa as well as several border crossings.
Hundreds of protesters gathered on the sidewalks around the legislature and Inner Harbour on Saturday and vehicles of every description clogged the streets and blared their horns calling on governments to end vaccine mandates.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2022.
— By Mia Rabson, Stephanie Taylor, Laura Osman and Mike Blanchfield, with a file from the Times Colonist
