Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday that he is revoking the extraordinary emergency powers police were given to break up demonstrations and end border blockades triggered by government-sanctioned COVID-19 restrictions.
“The situation is no longer an emergency. Therefore, the federal government will be ending the use of the Emergencies Act,” Trudeau said in a televised news conference. “We are confident that existing laws and bylaws are sufficient to keep people safe.”
Trudeau invoked the never-before-used measures Feb. 14, which gave police the right to declare certain areas of downtown Ottawa, Ontario, no-go zones. Police were also allowed to arrest people, force tow companies to haul away vehicles, as well as freeze truckers’ personal and corporate bank accounts.
Invoking the Emergencies Act was immediately criticized by members of the Conservative Party and civil liberties groups who accused Trudeau of overreach and infringing on the Charter rights of Canadians.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association announced last week that it would be suing Trudeau for invoking the Emergencies Act, claiming that “the government has brought in an extreme measure that should be reserved for national emergencies, a legal standard that has not been met. Emergency powers cannot and must not be normalized.”
TRUCKER ENCAMPMENTS APPEAR IN OTTAWA OUTSKIRTS AFTER PROTEST BROKEN UP
Ottawa was the last anti-vaccine mandate stronghold in Canada. The demonstrations, which were started by a group of truckers upset with COVID-19-related restrictions, quickly morphed into a broader show of dissatisfaction with all government mandates. The protests, which were attended by thousands of men, women, and children, created a crisis of confidence with law enforcement officials whom residents accused of not doing enough to rein in the truckers and their supporters.
Over the weekend, hundreds of police from around the country showed up in Ottawa to clear the demonstrations that began more than three weeks ago. At times, they used pepper spray and stun grenades. They also arrested nearly 200 people, including three protest organizers, towed 70 vehicles, froze bank accounts, asked local businesses to close their doors temporarily, cut off transportation to the downtown core, and put up nearly 100 checkpoints.
Ottawa officials estimated that the demonstrations cost the city $800,000 a day and snarled cross-border trade with the United States worth up to $350 million a day. Trudeau said the economic impacts were what finally drove him to invoke the Emergencies Act.
“Over the course of a couple of weeks, the barricades and occupations got implanted to a level that we felt last Monday that we needed to give time-limited proportional, reasonable, Charter-complaint extra tools to our authorities to be able to remove those barricades and those occupations,” he said. “This past weekend, we saw that happen, and as of Monday, Ottawa was clear of occupations and border blockades.”
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Despite protesters in Ottawa clearing out, pop-up protests about an hour outside the capital city remained.
Trudeau said he was confident that Canada has the procedures in place “to deal with the potential threat returning” and added that he has a “high level of confidence that the existing tools that police forces have across the country will be sufficient with further disruptions.”
