Canada Invokes Emergency Powers To Deal With COVID Protests

While Canadian officials plan to ease entry protocols for fully vaccinated international travelers starting February 28, 2022 by allowing a rapid antigen tests for travelers (instead of a molecular one), they also continue to deal with the fallout from other measures.

Specifically, as Connecting the Dots discussed last week, protests in Canada have snarled cross-border trade between the country and the United States. While police removed some of the protestors along the Ambassador Bridge on February 12, disruption continued in various parts of the country.

As a result, last week Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the radical step of invoking the nation’s Emergencies Act, which allows federal officials to take significant (but temporary) measures to restore public order. These powers include:

• Banning public assembly;
• Seizing trucks and other vehicles used in blockades and restricting travel to and from specific areas;
• Compel tow-truck operators to work with law enforcement to clear streets and border crossings in provinces;
• Control online crowdfunding platforms that have helped finance the protests; and
• Require insurance companies to revoke insurance on any vehicles used in blockades.

Business groups on both sides of the border praised the move, and continue to ask protestors to stop disrupting traffic and the flow of trade.

By Monday, February 21 protestors had largely left the nation’s capital of Ottawa.