Disclaimer: I think that he has over-reached and will face political trouble from even some within his own base of support, as leftists realize that this is not a good precedent to set in case another Stephen Harper comes along and decides to use this to harass leftists and their financial donations to equally disruptive leftist protest movements.
Just some context so the American readers know in more detail what appears to be happening.
The government has these emergency powers (under the legislation) for a limited period of three to seven days, depending on what course the opposition in parliament takes. Even at seven days, Trudeau will soon have to get the ratification of both the House and Senate for these extraordinary measures. It seems rather unlikely that this will happen. Financial institutions may be under pressure to comply for a few days, but if they drag their feet then they may soon get to a place where the government runs out of authority to continue.
That would be good, in a limited way.
It also remains to be seen whether the net is to be cast wide or narrow, in other words, are they going to go after every average citizen who gave small amounts to the freedom convoys, or will they only be trying to establish the identity of major funders? That will have political implications too, if they go after thousands of average citizens it is likely to fuel a firestorm of western separatist activity which has already gained a footing during this pandemic and the lockdowns.
There is a sort of exit ramp available if the government realizes it has blundered, as the two main economic pressure points (Windsor and the Alberta road crossing) have been relieved more or less voluntarily while the convoys re-assess.
The police chief in Ottawa has resigned under mounting political pressure as he appeared to be doing very little to oppose the occupation of downtown Ottawa during that protest. Here again, the future outcome is uncertain with hundreds of protestors digging in but gradually relocating to less populated areas directly around the parliament (you likely have never been to Ottawa, but picture it this way, it’s a series of parallel east-west streets of which the first, Wellington Street, has no residential aspects for at least a mile in either direction from the parliament buildings, along that stretch you find the Bank of Canada and the Supreme Court buildings as well, some large hotels, and eventually residential areas well removed from the protest encampment. ... then further south, more parallel east-west streets with shops and some residential areas; the residential population begins to increase beyond about the fourth of these downtown commercial streets and it is in that area that there has been friction between parked truckers and the local population).
So I can’t really speculate about how this all ends because each province is now moving towards relaxed pandemic responses but not in a unified way, for example we will still have the vaccine passport in place in BC while it’s gone from several other provinces. At some point the convoys may figure they have done all they can and dissolve, whether that takes the heat off them financially or not remains to be seen.
I don’t think any outcome will avoid a political crisis in March here, the government have clearly over-stepped any reasonable limit and this is obvious even to many elitists who are giving very limited and unenthusiastic support if not outright criticizing the measures. There are minefields for the government to cross, including detailed answers to growing concerns about false flag operations mounted by agencies which were either being directed by the PMO (Prime Minister’s office, basically the equivalent of the White House), or at least with his implied sanction. That could prove to be a resignation level crisis if handled appropriately by the Opposition. So could the financial over-reach. It does not sound like the banks are very excited to have policemen on the phone asking for confidential client information. And in Canada, the banks have been very powerful political players in the past. Unlike the USA, we only have a handful of banks here and they are all quite solvent and wealthy (meaning they can buy political support quite easily). They have tended to support the Liberal Party but this may make them more likely to switch support to the Conservatives, which I think would spell the end of Trudeau as his handlers would not like that even slightly.
Also somebody commented that Canadians had “given up their guns.” I don’t think that’s accurate, there are probably plenty of weapons in private hands and there has been no mass confiscation of privately owned weapons in Canada. Our concealed carry laws are different by and large, although that doesn’t seem to stop many people from carrying anyway. Our criminal element alone has more firepower than the armed forces probably have, certainly more than the police.
In addition to the seizure of assets, there is a question of the Federal suspension of due process.
Across the nation police will have the authority now to arreest witout proabale cause.That means if you are carryiung a “F**K TRUDEAU” sign, th epolice can arrest you, and jail you without charge. They do not have to allow a phone call nor will you be allowed to call a lawyer. Habeas Corpus is suspended. There is not need for an arraignment or a bail hearing. People cvan be jailed for the entire period that the Emergency Measures Act is in place.You then can be interiorgated and if your name is on a donars list for financially supporting the Freedom Convoy, then youwill be interogated as to who your associatesd are, where your money comes from etc. Then that information can be used to arrest your colleagues without proabale cause and so on.
What people are not mentioning is the fact that not only assets can be fozen and confiscated, but the notion of due process is suspended. In this way Trudeau gets what he really wanted badly....the ability to jail his politcal opponents.
This is the very definition of fascism. This is a government that has become tyrannical for no just cause, other than the maintenance of their power whichi was slippingaway fropm them because of their failure to properly manage the pandemic itself.
Health Canada lied to the people about how the so called vaccine worked.The vaccine does not give immunity of any sort, somce mRNA vaccines dop not create antibodies. The vaccine does not prevent transmission of the virus, thereby obviating the very necessity of vaccine mandates. The tyranny was political, not scientific.Nothing but the poliitics of conformity and fear.People find it passingly strange that there is not one published outpatient protocol issied by eother provincial or federal public health authorities after 2 and a half years of this pandemic, when in fact there are off label drug therapies available to combat the pandemic at home. But doctors were not given the freedoom to pursue this course with patients.Another reduction of freedom.
So far the Federal government has not informed the public about the suspension of habeas corpus within Canadian law which is indeed contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.This draconian measure is called , “necessary tools” for police to do their jobs.In fact it reduces Canada to a police state. People will be jailed for theior poliitical beliefs and their exercise of freedom of speech.
The Trudeau government is not longer a government. The Trudeau government is now the Trudeau Regime. And the People of Canada will not likely except it, if they learn the truth of it within the next few days.The criminalization of civil disobedience exercised by ordinary free Canadians in answer to a vaccine mandate which caused them to lose their way of living is not only unscientifically indicated, it was done as a matter of social control by facelss health workers who were not even elected to represent anyone.There are many thousands of horror stories of the unecessary loss of small business, and professional closures from one end of Canada to the other. All needleesly imposed because of a calous disregard for the “little people” of Canada. So the civil disobedience was both timely and appropriate, yet the Trudeau Regime would not even talk with the Convoy Representatives.
The Trudeau Regime will fall. It is only a matter of the time it will take to actually discover the draconian authority that Trudeau will exercise under the Emergency Act, now disguised by the Trudeau regime and soft pedalled by Canada’s State sponsored media.
The Freedom Convoy consists of Free Canadians and they do not deserve to be treated and classified as criminals and terrorists.And the CBC and CTV media will go down in history in infamy for spreading such propaganda.