Covid-19: Canadian PM Trudeau invokes ‘emergency powers’ to quell protests
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday invoked the seldom-used ‘emergency powers’ to put an end to the trucker-led, widespread protests of Covid-19 vaccine skeptics and others as police arrested 11 people with a “cache of firearms” blocking a border crossing with the United States.
In December 2020, Trudeau had supported the Indian farmers’ agitation. Now he is tasting his medicine as he contends with a trucker’s agitation in his own country.
The murmurs against the government’s decision to make coronavirus vaccination mandatory for those crossing the US borders were originally started in mid-2020 and these protests have since simmered. Around two weeks ago, it became so widespread and aggressive, with thousands of truckers taking “Freedom Convoy” to block the capital Ottawa and its main arterial roads, that Trudeau and his family had to take shelter in an undisclosed place for their own safety. Later, he was reported to have tested Covid-19 positive himself.
Earlier, Canada had used the Emergencies Act during the reign of Justin’s father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, amid the October Crisis of 1970. Then the government had rushed troops to the French-speakers’ Quebec province to restore order. This was done after the militants kidnapped a British trade attaché and a Quebec minister, Pierre Laporte, who was later found strangled to death in the trunk of a car.
On Monday, Justin Trudeau said, “The federal government has invoked the Emergencies Act to supplement provincial and territorial capacity to address the blockades and occupations,” the media reported.
His proposed measures include freezing the bank accounts of protesters.
Trudeau said it was too early to deploy the army but they would empower the authorities to arrest protesters and seize their trucks to clear blockades, as well as ban funding of the protests.
Last weekend, the Canadian police cleared a blockade on the Ambassador Bridge, which handles a fourth of trade with the United States, and had disrupted business in the world’s largest economy.
Meanwhile, the federal police arrested 11 protesters with rifles, handguns, body armor, and ammunition at the border between Coutts, Alberta, and Sweet Grass, Montana, a day after another key US-Canada border crossing was cleared in Ontario.
The protesters intensified their “Freedom Convoy” movement in January with Canadian truckers opposed to mandatory vaccines to cross the border with the United States. As others joined them, their demands swelled to include an end to all Covid-19 health measures, and even the toppling of Trudeau’s Liberal government, which was re-elected only five months ago.
The Canadian truckers found support among conservatives and vaccine mandate opponents across the globe when the Covid-19 restrictions are being rolled back in many countries.
Earlier, Ontario Premier Doug Ford lifted vaccine passport requirements by March 1 in the province, which Alberta and Saskatchewan had already done, as most people had got vaccinated and the peak of Omicron variant-related infection cases had passed.
Life in protest-affected areas had come to a standstill for the past two weeks. The Ottawa residents complained they became prisoners in their own homes. Businesses in downtowns also lost customers after the authorities warned residents to stay clear of the volatile protests.
The Canadian truckers’ protests triggered similar movements from France to New Zealand, with US truckers also mulling rallies.
Police fired tear gas and imposed fines to break up similar convoys coming to Paris from across France. They reported protests in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Austria. The Belgian police intercepted around 30 vehicles to stop a convoy of trucks.
