Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has invoked the Emergencies Act in an effort to end anti-government blockades he says are illegal and not about peaceful protest.
Trudeau says the act will be used to protect critical infrastructure such as borders and airports.
He adds the scope of the measures will be time-limited and geographically targeted.
New measures include giving banks the power to suspend or freeze accounts of blockade supporters without a court order, and force crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrencies to follow anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws.
The move comes after a protest against COVID-19 measures has immobilized Ottawa’s downtown core for more than two weeks and several similar protests have cropped up across the country.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says it doesn’t think the government has met the “high and clear” threshold needed to invoke the act.
