It happened after police detained 11 people with “firearms stockpiles” who blocked a border crossing point at the US border.
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This is the second time that the Emergency Law has been used in peacetime. Hundreds of trucks continue to block the streets of Ottawa and two border crossings on the US border.
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“The federal government has invoked the Emergency Law to supplement the provinces ‘and territories’ ability to counter blockades and occupation,” Trudo told a news conference.
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He said the army would not yet be involved, but authorities would be given more power to detain protesters and confiscate their trucks in order to end the blockade and ban funding for the protests.
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Federal police said on Monday they had detained 11 protesters with rifles, pistols, bulletproof vests and ammunition at a border crossing between the village of Kuta in Alberta and the town of Switgrass, Montana.
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“This group was ready to use force against the police in the event of attempts to disrupt the blockade,” the police said in a statement.
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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.
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These so-called “Freedom Column” protests have also provoked similar demonstrations in France, New Zealand and elsewhere.
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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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