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“Illegal blockades and occupations are not peaceful protests,” Trudo told the House of Representatives. “They have to stop.”
The prime minister on Monday used extraordinary powers to end the blockade of the border and free the streets of Ottawa from protest trucks.
“The purpose of all these measures, including financial measures, in the Emergency Law is to deal with the current threat and bring the situation under full control,” the prime minister said.
“The blockades and occupations are illegal,” he stressed.
“They are a threat to our economy and to our trading partners. They also threaten the supply chain and the availability of basic goods such as food and medicine,” Trudo explained.
Responding to critics, Trudo said: “We do not use the Emergency Law to involve the army. We do not restrict people’s freedom of expression. We do not restrict freedom of peaceful assembly.”
Trudo activated the Emergency Law on Monday to end widespread protests against Covid-19 restrictions.
Demonstrations in Canada began in late January as a protest against the government’s decision to extend compulsory vaccination to truck drivers in cross-border traffic, but grew sharply against the restrictions on Covid-19 and the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudo.
These so-called “Freedom Column” protests have also provoked similar demonstrations in France, New Zealand and elsewhere.
The peacetime emergency was first applied by Trudo’s father, then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudo, during the October 1970 crisis. At the time, the Canadian army was sent to the province of Quebec to restore order after the abduction of the British trade attaché and Quebec government minister Pierre Laport by Quebec separatists. Laport was found strangled in the trunk of a car.
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