Canada’s Justin Trudeau invokes emergency powers to quell trucker protests
- Frustration grows as ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests stretch into third week, shutting down some border crossings and paralysing part of capital Ottawa
- The Emergencies Act has been used only once before in peacetime, in 1970, by Trudeau’s father, former PM Pierre Trudeau
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau activated rarely used emergency powers in an effort to end protests that have shut some US border crossings and paralysed parts of the capital.
Under the Emergencies Act, the government introduced measures intended to cut off protesters’ funding and took steps to reinforce provincial and local law enforcement with federal police. “The blockades are harming our economy and endangering public safety,” Trudeau told a news conference on Monday. “We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue.”
But the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said the government had not met the standard for invoking the Emergencies Act, which is intended to deal with threats to “sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” the group said.
The “Freedom Convoy” protests, started by Canadian truckers opposing a Covid-19 vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers, have drawn people opposed to Trudeau’s policies on everything from pandemic restrictions to a carbon tax. Copycat trucker protests have also sprung up in Israel, France, Australia and New Zealand.
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Canadian anti-vaccine ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests inspire demonstrations in Europe, New Zealand
Protesters blockaded the Ambassador Bridge, a vital trade route between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, for six days before police cleared the protest on Sunday while others have shut down smaller border crossings in Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia. Protests in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, entered a third week.