By Arjun Walia | The Pulse
After 10 days, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ended the Emergency Act that was used to give government and police more authority in order to remove and detain ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters who were occupying Ottawa.
On Wednesday evening, Trudeau said that the situation is “no longer an emergency.” During the time where the act was in place, Trudeau’s government had frozen funds of the protesters and placed financial sanctions of some of its own citizens who were donating to the convoy.
Trudeau said he is “confident” now that “existing laws and bylaws” are “sufficient to keep people safe.” Note, during the 3 week peaceful protest, no one was injured, no property was damaged and the only acts of violence came when Trudeau’s government sent in hundreds of police dressed in riot gear to force out protesters.
Just two days ago, Trudeau got the support he needed in the House of Commons to pass an extension of the Emergency Act. Trudeau had said the situation was “fragile” and still an “emergency” just prior to the vote.
The Canadian Senate was set to vote on whether the act would be extended. Given the legal requirements for invoking the act to begin with were shaky, it is rumoured that the Senate was not going to pass it. This would mean Trudeau revoked it before it could be struck down. If true, this likely would have been done as a PR move to maintain public perception that the invocation of the emergency act was well thought out.
Trudeau was receiving a great deal of backlash from fellow politicians in Canada, Canadian citizens and world leaders around the world who thought the use of emergency powers in this situation was not only unnecessary but the standards for invoking the act legally were not met.
This article (Canada Expands “Terrorist Financing Rules” To Shut Down Freedom Convoy Funding) was originally published on The Pulse and is published under a Creative Commons license.