TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th February, 2022) Canadian financial institutions have begun freezing the accounts of protesters involved in anti-government demonstrations in Ottawa and across the country, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday.
On Monday, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, which allowed it to grant Canadian financial institutions authorization to temporarily cease providing financial services in instances where the provider suspects that an account is being used to fund the protests.
"Information is now being shared by law enforcement with Canada's financial institutions. Financial service providers have already taken action based on that information," Freeland told a news conference in Ottawa.
The Emergencies Act, which became law in 1985, is defined as an "urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature" that threatens the ability of the government to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada and endangers the lives, health and safety of citizens.
The declaration has been met with considerable backlash, as multiple civil liberties organizations, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, premiers and political parties have decried the decision as government overreach, arguing that the threshold for what serves as a trigger for the act has not been met.
Furthermore, the deputy director of the country's financial intelligence unit has testified before the parliamentary public safety committee that the demonstrations have not been identified as ideologically-motivated violent extremism and the agency tasked with monitoring financial operations has not witnessed a "spike in suspicious transaction reporting."
The wave of protests across Canada began in mid-January, with thousands of truckers and other demonstrators converging upon Ottawa to express strong opposition to vaccine mandates for truckers crossing the US-Canada border. The protest has since evolved into an anti-government demonstration, with various groups uniting in opposition of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
