Canadian government is invoking the Emergencies Act for the first time to address the impact of continued truckers protests over COVID-19 health measures going on across the country.
Gatekeepers News reports that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said the Emergencies Act can provide for the use of the military, but may not necessarily lead to that.
However, Trudeau said the government is not bringing them (the military) in, but suspending citizens’ rights to free movement or assembly can temporarily be suspended.
He added that the government is taking steps to stop the financial support of illegal protests.
The trucker-inspired protests which began weeks ago have disturbed residents in Ottawa’s downtown and recently impeded traffic flow at crossings at the US border.
Trudeau during a news conference in Ottawa said, “This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting peoples’ jobs and restoring faith in our institutions,” adding that the law will be limited geographically, in scope, and in time.
The Canadian law, passed in 1988, states, “For the purposes of this Act, a national emergency is an urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature” that cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.”
The Prime Minister while stressing that the government is not overriding the charter of rights and freedoms, nor limiting the right to peaceful assembly, stressed that “We are not preventing people from exercising their right to protest legally.”
This development comes after the Ambassador Bridge — North America’s busiest land border crossing reopened on Sunday and Canada’s most populous province, Ontario announced plans to loosen pandemic restrictions.
Protesters blocked the bridge linking Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit — severing the key trade route and dealing economic blows to both the US and Canada.
The Detroit International Bridge Company said the reopening of the bridge on Sunday night allowed “the free flow of commerce between the Canada and US economies once again.”
On the next day, the leader of Ontario announced plans to drop the province’s vaccine passport requirements on March 1 if its COVID-19 hospitalisation rates continue to improve.
Premier Doug Ford announced, “The removal of these measures has always been our objective and something we have collectively worked towards for months now.”
Ford added, “Let me be very clear: We’re moving in this direction because it’s safe to do so… Today’s announcement is not because of what’s happening in Ottawa or Windsor but despite it.”
