Oh, wait ... :
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that he is revoking the use of the Emergencies Act, saying the situation is no longer an emergency.
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“We need to constantly work to defend and improve our democracy at home and around the world.”
Under Sec. 62 of the Emergencies Act such reviews are mandatory and, according to the legislation, held in private.
Now, about that:
Cabinet’s abrupt suspension of Emergencies Act orders yesterday came so suddenly Liberal appointees in the Senate were continuing to warn of anarchist plots to topple Parliament even as the threat was downgraded to an ordinary police matter. “We need the full power of the state,” said Senator Bev Busson (B.C.), a former RCMP Commissioner: “It is a national crisis. I am at a loss to understand how we can play politics with our democracy.”
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The head of the RCMP says the powers given to her officers through the Emergencies Act served as "a big deterrent" in policing anti-vaccine mandate protests that occupied the streets of downtown Ottawa for nearly a month.
Commissioner Brenda Lucki's remarks before a parliamentary committee Friday afternoon come during a heated political debate over whether the Liberal government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.
Earlier this month, the federal government invoked new powers to address anti-vaccine mandate protesters and blockades — including the authority to ban travel to protest zones and prohibit people from bringing minors to unlawful assemblies.
"We don't have anything in laws that prevent people from coming to protests and we can't turn them away. So for us, operationally, it was all about reducing that footprint in Ottawa and the only way to do that was to stop people from coming in or incentivizing them to leave," Lucki told MPs on the public safety and national security committee looking into the federal government's response to the protests.
"We used it as a big deterrent for people to come into the area. So, yes, in fact, we did use the measures that were put in the Emergencies Act, along with other authorities that we had."
Lucki and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino took questions from MPs Friday morning about whether police had sufficient authority to curb the occupation without having to trigger the never-before-used legislation.
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First-ever use of the Emergencies Act to quash the Freedom Convoy movement will set a federal precedent for years to come, legislators warned yesterday. Liberal and Conservative-appointed senators called it government overreach: “The country is deeply divided like I have never seen it.”
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A federal bank, Farm Credit Canada of Regina, began blacklisting customers suspected of sympathizing with the Freedom Convoy. Critics of Emergencies Act orders targeting bank account holders yesterday called the measure punitive and unlawful: “Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.”
(Sidebar: I'll just leave this here.)
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Banks have frozen nearly $8 million in accounts held by Freedom Convoy truckers, the Department of Finance disclosed yesterday. Authorities confirmed even small donations to the convoy, as little as $20, could trigger retribution if cash was contributed after cabinet declared the Freedom Convoy an illegal assembly on February 15: “It could be a savings account, a chequing account, a mortgage.”
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Police and municipal officials are keeping an eye on rural encampments where apparent “Freedom Convoy” protesters have gathered after leaving downtown Ottawa.
On Monday, both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said they were concerned about groups gathering outside city borders.
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"I have been in contact with a reliable source within the Canadian military, and he told me today by email that if I had any sense I would take my money out of the Canadian banks because the situation is far worse than I've been informed. That's one of many such messages I received on a daily basis."
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WHAT! Chrystia Freeland says that some accounts will remain frozen in perpetuity depending on who the person was.
— Keean Bexte (@TheRealKeean) February 23, 2022
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The Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) confirmed that it shut down nearly 40 businesses during its crackdown on Freedom Convoy protesters opposing COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.**
Two Edmonton Police Service (EPS) officers who made public statements supporting the trucker protest opposing COVID-19 mandates and restrictions have been suspended without pay.
Then this happened:
When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced they would use the Emergency Act declaration to target the financial support systems, banks and accounts of the people who were protesting against COVID mandates, they not only undermined the integrity of the Canadian banking system – but they also inadvertently stuck a wrench into the plans of the World Economic Forum and the collaborative use of the Canadian Bankers Association to create a digital id. ...
Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland essentially broke the financial code of Omerta, by highlighting how easy it is for government to seize your bank accounts, credit cards, retirement accounts, insurance, mortgages, loan access and cut you off from money (without due process).
The unintended consequence was an immediate and clear reference point if government did the same action with a digital ID in place.
However, this undermined confidence and faith in the banking system cannot be restored quickly. The toothpaste cannot be put back into the tube. The horse has left the barn.
Quickly this becomes a moment for immediate damage control by the Canadian government. This explains why Justin Trudeau dropped the declaration of the Emergency Act.
It all makes sense now. All of it.
Personally, I think it was because the Vichy puppet wanted to show who was boss after being publicly humiliated around the world but that's just me.
Some people just aren't buying it:
Moe said the federal government should now end all COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.
“It is past time for the Trudeau government to detail a return to normal for all Canadians,” Moe said Wednesday.
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Alberta will proceed in its request for a judicial review of the federal government's use of the Emergencies Act against trucker convoy protests, Premier Jason Kenney said Wednesday.
Rising in the legislature to address what he called "one of the most obvious overreaches of government power in my lifetime," Kenney said the fact the act was revoked earlier in the day is irrelevant.
"That does not change the profound concerns of Canadians, of Albertans and this assembly with this unnecessary, unjustified and disproportionate use of arbitrary police power in our lifetime with no good reason," Kenney said.
Kenney said there never was an emergency that justified the act's extraordinary powers.
He pointed out that the border blockade at Coutts, Alta., was cleared before the act was brought in. He said Ottawa police had plenty of laws that prevented semi-trailer rigs from being parked on the streets of downtown Ottawa.
"We had no shortage of law. What we had was a shortage of enforcement."
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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and two civil and constitutional rights groups say they will continue to pursue legal challenges of the Canadian government’s use of the Emergencies Act even after the measure was revoked on Feb. 23.
And some people show their true colours:
"Ottawa Hate Free Zone" came up in response to FreedomConvoy protests because residents of Centretown were petrified of peaceful protestors.Its founder holds a poster calling for "Defund Police,Fund Real Safety" when it was the cops who cleared the protestors. Can't make this up. https://t.co/AqVUS7yfAc pic.twitter.com/MO0pdC4CCU
— Rupa Subramanya (@rupasubramanya) February 27, 2022
This "hate-free zone":
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