Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking drastic action to stop the Freedom Convoy protest: he’s blocking their access to cash.
By invoking emergency powers, Trudeau has demanded that all financial institutions search through their records to locate clients who may be involved with the Freedom Convoy. Such accounts will be frozen, blocking the client’s access to cash and cryptocurrency. The emergency order also allows banks to start sharing “relevant information” if that “information will help put a stop to the funding of illegal blockades” and gives Trudeau the power to ban public assembly.
“I think this caught everyone off guard,” says Greg Taylor, an executive with Purpose Investments Inc. “There’s a lot of questions right now in figuring out who we’re targeting, what do we have to look at.”
Several banks have already confirmed freezing accounts belonging to individuals who were involved in “illegal protests.” Their names were provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
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The Freedom Convoy is a group of Canadian truckers who seek to end COVID restrictions that are impacting the industry. The group has staged multiple protests and has used its trucks to block border crossings. The convoy has been parked in downtown Ottawa for nearly a month despite the government’s threats to strip them of their insurance.
In early February, crowdfunding website GoFundMe reversed $8 million in donations to the convoy.
Author’s Note: Shutting off your means to survive with no warrant and no trial is the move of a dictator, not a democracy. Apparently Canada isn’t as free as we thought.
Sources:
Banks have started to freeze accounts linked to the protests, Freeland says
Banks Get Protestors’ Names as Canada Financial Squeeze Unfolds
