Canada Uses Emergency Powers to Clear Truckers

🇨🇦 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers for the first time in history on Monday. He did so in an effort to end weeks of trucker-inspired anti-Covid restriction protests in Ottawa, the country’s capital, where demonstrators and their vehicles remained gathered.

• The Emergencies Act of 1988 gives the federal government added powers in times of national crisis – specifically, an "urgent and critical situation" that "seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians."
• For the next 30 days, Trudeau will have the ability to prohibit public assembly and travel, and can allow banks to freeze the accounts of protesters without a court order, among other things.
• Officials said the measures were necessary because of unlawful acts committed by the protesters, as well as the damage done to the economy after they partially blocked the Ambassador Bridge to the US for nearly a week (resulting in losses of ~$300 million within the auto industry alone).
• The premier of Ontario, where Ottawa is located, said he supported Trudeau’s move. But other provincial leaders said the emergency powers weren’t needed in their regions, with some cautioning that invoking them could “throw oil on fire.”

🌎 Zoom out: Copycat trucker protests have also sprung up in Israel, France, Belgium, and New Zealand. There were also reports of a similar US trucker convoy that could have potentially disrupted the Super Bowl in LA before heading to DC, but it hasn’t yet materialized.

+Stepping down: Ottawa’s chief of police resigned yesterday.

+Dig deeper: From the Left | From the Right