TRUDEAU WINS PARLIAMENTARY APPROVAL FOR EMERGENCY POWERS DECLARATION

Tue 22 February 2022:

On Monday, the Canada’s House of Commons voted 185 to 151 to approve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act last week to calm disruptive protests that stalled parts of Ottawa for 23 days by blocking border crossings with trucks and other heavy vehicles.

The parliament on Monday also backed Trudeau’s decision to invoke rarely-used emergency powers to end protests, which blocked streets in the capital for more than three weeks. Canadian police succeeded in restoring normalcy in Ottawa during the weekend.

Announced by the PM recently, the special measures have been deemed unnecessary and an abuse of power by some politicians of the opposition.

Trudeau had also told reporters earlier on Monday that his government still needed temporary emergency powers citing “real concerns” over threats in the recent future. “This state of emergency is not over. There continue to be real concerns about the coming days,” he said.

Trudeau also called for people to work together and said, “we don’t know when this pandemic is going to end, but that doesn’t mean we cannot start healing as a nation”.

Green Party member Mike Morrice, who voted against the motion, said invoking the act was an “inappropriate” response to a failure in policing.

The remaining border blockades were cleared last week, and police finished pushing the “Freedom Convoy” protesters and their trucks out of Ottawa on Sunday.

Police said they arrested 191 protesters and towed 79 vehicles in their campaign to clear Ottawa. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the emergency measures had also been used to freeze more than 200 financial accounts of “influencers in the illegal protest in Ottawa and owners and/or drivers of vehicles who did not want to leave the area.” Donors to crowdfunding campaigns to support the truckers were not targeted, police said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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