"The consequences are real and they will bite."įreeland, who is also the country's finance minister, said federal law enforcement agencies are collecting their own intelligence on the protesters and their supporters, which is being shared with banks to block access to cash or cryptocurrency. In fact we do so with great sorrow but do not doubt our determination to act, to defend our democracy, to defend our economy, and to restore peace," Freeland said. "It gives me no pleasure to impose any of these measures. The Emergencies Act has also allowed the Canadian government to expand the country's money-laundering and terrorist financing laws to sites like GiveSendGo, which are now required to register with the nation's financial intelligence agency and to report large and suspicious transactions to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. Protestors participate in a blockade of downtown streets near the parliament building as a demonstration organized by truck drivers opposing vaccine mandates continues on February 16, 2022, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. On February 17, 2022, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that Canadian banks have begun freezing the accounts of people donating to the anti-COVID mandate protesters in Ottawa. Under the broadened federal powers, Canada's financial institutions have been prohibited from providing "any financial or related services" to people who are "directly or indirectly" involved in the anti-COVID mandate protests across the nation. The powers granted by the act would allow banks to target the accounts of people who have donated to crowdfunding platforms, like the fundraising campaigns on GoFundMe and GiveSendGo, that have fueled the ongoing protests, but Freeland said she would not give "specifics of whose accounts are being frozen."ĭonor information that was leaked from the GiveSendGo campaign-which has raised more than $9.5 million-revealed that more than half the donations going to protest organizers have come from the U.S.Īn analysis of the data by Newsweek found that California, Texas, Florida, New York and Michigan topped the list of the highest number of U.S. On February 17, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a press conference that financial institutions have started freezing accounts and canceling credit cards in accordance with the Emergencies Act, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau i nvoked earlier this week. U.S.-bound lanes reopened Tuesday, but as of early Wednesday morning lanes going into Canada remained partially closed, according to the Canada Border Services Agency's website.Ĭanadian officials have warned of the potential for economic fallout, with Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino calling the bridge “one of the most important border crossings in the world.Canadian banks have begun freezing the accounts of people linked to the trucker protests in Canada and the federal government is promising to take more accounts offline in coming days in an attempt to clear demonstrators from Ottawa, which has been occupied for nearly a month. Police had asked drivers to avoid the area, which has seen traffic clogged by protesters since Monday. It is unclear how many of those trucks were participating in the demonstration and how many had simply been blocked from moving forward. and Canada, congested with trucks backed up along the crossing Tuesday. Eric Gaillard / ReutersĪerial footage showed Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit and Windsor and carries around 27 percent of all trade between the U.S. French activists embarked on a "Convoi de la liberte" from Nice to Paris on Wednesday. The prospect of an economic impact in the United States came after the truckers won support from Republican politicians, including former President Donald Trump, and as similar convoys protesting coronavirus regulations emerged in Europe and elsewhere.
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