A Canadian MP says the bank account of a single mom with a minimum wage job has been frozen after she donated $50 to Freedom Convoy.
Canadian banks have been freezing the accounts and canceling credit cards of people linked to the trucker protests in accordance with the Emergencies Act, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked last week in an attempt to clear the demonstrators from Ottawa.
He has been blasted for the move, seen as draconian and an affront to the right to protest, with a parliamentary vote on whether Trudeau did the right thing set to take place in the coming days.
A single mother named only as Briane is one of those people, according to Canadian MP Mark Stahl, as concerns grow that scores of ordinary people will no longer be able to pay for food and basics if their accounts have been frozen just for making a donation.
He tweeted her story Sunday, shining a light on how her livelihood is being affected by Trudeau’s orders.
‘Briane is a single mom from Chilliwack working a minimum wage job. She gave $50 to the convoy when it was 100% legal. She hasn’t participated in any other way. Her bank account has now been frozen. This is who Justin Trudeau is actually targeting with his Emergencies Act orders.’
A Canadian MP tweeted that the bank account of a single mom with a minimum wage job has been frozen after she donated $50 to Freedom Convoy
Strahl tweeted her story Sunday, shining a light on how her livelihood is being affected by Trudeau’s orders
Response on social media varied from those angry at the situation, stating this would have never happened to Black Lives Matter protesters, to those who claimed Briane was fake
Response on social media varied from those angry at the situation, stating this would have never happened to Black Lives Matter protesters, and offered to help Briane, to those who claimed Briane was fake, a sob story made up by conservatives spread fear across Canada.
‘Thank you to those who have read this and offered to help someone you’ve never met,’ Strahl tweeted. ‘Shame on those who have read it and attacked someone you’ve never met. I will keep working with Briane to resolve this matter with her bank and will provide updates as they are made available.’
‘To those of you, especially the media, demanding more details on Briane, having seen what has been said about her online today and what has been done to other convoy donors in the last weeks I am not going to help you dox her,’ Strahl continued. ‘I know who she is and I won’t stop fighting for her.’
Strahl also received a response from colleague, Taleeb Noormohamed, MP for Vancouver Granville, who tweeted:
‘From one colleague to another:
– if this is true & she can provide proof this is the only reason her account was frozen, I’ll personally help you solve this for Briane – in confidence. But if it’s not, you agree to unreservedly and publicly apologise. Fair?’
The Ottawa protests – the movement’s last major stronghold – appeared to be largely over by Sunday. Fencing and police checkpoints remained.
But as of Monday, Canadian authorities said 206 bank accounts had been frozen under the power granted by federal emergencies act.
The Ottawa protests – the movement’s last major stronghold – appeared to be largely over by Sunday. Fencing and police checkpoints remained
Cops are filmed shoving protesters during Saturday’s operation to break up the remaining Freedom Convoy
Canadian MP Mark Strahl (left) says the bank account of a single mom with a minimum wage job has been frozen after she donated $50 to Freedom Convoy, saying ‘This is who Justin Trudeau is actually targeting with his Emergencies Act orders’
Toronto-Dominion Bank said it froze donations from that were transferred to individual bank accounts
Mike Duheme, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) deputy commissioner of federal policing, said Sunday that finances associated with certain individuals and companies believed to be involved in the protest will continue to be frozen.
The powers have been in effect but Parliament is expected to ratify the action Monday.
Until then, there are still reports of accounts being frozen.
The powers under the Emergencies Act Vote allows 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 authorities would not give ‘specifics of whose accounts are being frozen.’
Another protester held up a placard saying ‘Hold the line’ in a rallying cry to his fellow Freedom Convoy members on Saturday
Four officers carry a handcuffed protester away from the no-go zone in Ottawa
The self-styled Freedom Convoy shook Canada´s reputation for civility, inspired convoys in France, New Zealand and the Netherlands and interrupted trade, causing economic damage on both sides of the border. Hundreds of trucks eventually occupied the streets around Parliament, a display that was part protest and part carnival.
Authorities moved quickly to reopen the border posts, but police in Ottawa did little but issue warnings until the past couple days, even as hundreds and sometimes thousands of protesters clogged the streets of the city and besieged Parliament Hill.
Truckers ignored warnings that they were risking arrest and could have their rigs seized and bank accounts frozen under the new emergency powers invoked by Trudeau.
The truckers, parked on the streets in and around Parliament, blared their horns in defiance of a court injunction against honking, issued after residents said the constant noise was making the neighborhood unlivable.
‘It´s high time that these illegal and dangerous activities stop,’ Trudeau declared in Parliament a few days ago, speaking just a few hundred meters from the protests.
On Friday, authorities launched the largest police operation in Canadian history, arresting a string of Ottawa protesters and increasing that pressure on Saturday until the streets in front of Parliament were clear.
Eventually, police arrested at least 191 people and towed away 79 vehicles. Many protesters retreated as the pressure increased.
The Ottawa protests – the movement´s last major stronghold – appeared to be largely over by Sunday. Fencing and police checkpoints remained.
‘The number of unlawful protesters has dramatically declined in the last 24 hours,’ Ottawa interim Police Chief Steve Bell said.
Authorities also said 206 bank accounts had been frozen under the power granted by federal emergencies act.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said progress has been made but the end of the blockades might not be over. He said that targeted measures in the emergencies act allowed police to designate a wide swath of Ottawa’s downtown core to become a no-go zone and that tool alone has been extremely effective.
He said that targeted measures in the emergencies act allowed police to designate a wide swath of Ottawa’s downtown core to become a no-go zone and that tool alone has been extremely effective.
‘For the first time in three weeks the streets are calm, they are quiet and they are clear. That all followed the invocation of the emergencies act,’ Mendicino said in an interview with The Associated Press. ‘We will not use it for a single minute longer than we have to.’
Mendicino said the financial accounts of those who refused to leave will remain frozen while the act is in force but added that it is up to police to decide whose accounts get frozen.
The powers are already in effect but Parliament is expected to ratify the action Monday.
As it did in the United States, COVID-19 quickly became a political issue in Canada.
Coronavirus health restrictions became a political cudgel for Canada´s far right, which accused Trudeau of authoritarianism. But while the restrictions clearly benefitted the far-right People´s Party of Canada, things are more complicated in the Conservative Party.
The streets around the Canadian Parliament are quiet now. The Ottawa protesters who vowed never to give up are largely gone, chased away by police in riot gear. The relentless blare of truckers´ horns has gone silent.
A winter service vehicle drives through Ottawa Sunday as Canadian police make possibly the final push to clear the capital city of demonstrators who have paralyzed it by parking and camping on the streets for more than three weeks to protest against pandemic restrictions
Police vehicles have replaced big rig trucks and protesters Sunday in the main downtown area that has been fenced off with warnings for people to avoid the space or risk being arrested
A barricade blocks a street near Parliament Hill a day after police cleared a demonstration by truck drivers opposing vaccine mandates that had been entrenched for 23 days
But the trucker protest, which grew until it closed a handful of Canada-U.S. border posts and shut down key parts of the capital city for weeks, could echo for years in Canadian politics and perhaps south of the border.
The protest, which was first aimed at a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers but also encompassed fury over the range of COVID-19 restrictions and hatred of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, reflected the spread of disinformation in Canada and simmering populist and right-wing anger.
‘I think we´ve started something here,’ said Mark Suitor, a 33-year-old protester from Hamilton, Ontario, speaking as police retook control of the streets around Parliament.
Protesters had essentially occupied those streets for more than three weeks, embarrassing Trudeau and energizing Canada´s far right. Suitor believes the protests will divide the country, something he welcomes.
‘This is going to be a very big division in our country,’ he said. ‘I don´t believe this is the end.’
Police man a checkpoint inside of a barrier fence near Parliament Hill on Sunday. Police have made 191 arrests and towed 57 vehicles since they began efforts to bust up the protest
While most analysts doubt the protests will mark a historic watershed in Canadian politics, it has shaken both of Canada´s two major parties.
‘The protest has given both the Liberals and the Conservatives a black eye,’ said Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto. Trudeau´s Liberals look bad for allowing protesters to foments weeks of chaos in the capital city, he said, while the Conservatives look bad for championing protesters, many of them from the farthest fringes of the right.
The conservatives ‘have to be careful not to alienate more moderate voters, who are generally not sympathetic to the protesters or right-wing populism more generally,’ said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
Coronavirus health restrictions became a political cudgel for Canada´s far right, which accused Trudeau of authoritarianism. But while the restrictions clearly benefitted the far-right People´s Party of Canada, things are more complicated in the Conservative Party.
Only recently have some Conservative leaders fully embraced the pushback against vaccine mandates and coronavirus restrictions.