![]() ![]() “At the borders in different places in the country, the blockades are harming our economy and endangering public safety. Protesters had blocked the bridge for days, holding up $360 million of daily trade and drawing attention from the White House. Trudeau invoked the act a day after police cleared protesters from the Ambassador Bridge that connects Ontario to Detroit, Mich., and carries 23% of cross-border trade between the U.S. “We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue,” Trudeau said as he invoked the Emergencies Act, which granted police greater leeway to impose fines, imprison protesters, and tow vehicles blocking roads. Last Monday, Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered the Freedom Convoy campaign its final death blow and invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history, empowering police to move against protesters. Canadian courts have never issued a Mareva injunction-which freezes a defendant’s assets-against cryptocurrency before. Then, last Friday, a group of Ottawa residents set a new precedent in Canadian law and won a class-action lawsuit to invoke a Mareva injunction and freeze 146 cryptocurrency wallets associated with the protesters. 5 when GoFundMe suspended Lich’s fundraising account after receiving police reports of protest violence and other unlawful activity. Crypto funds frozenįor protesters, the first bad omen for their movement hit on Feb. cross-border trade worth $350 million a day, the government stepped in to shut the protests down. With disruption costing the city upward of $800,000 per day in policing expenses and snarling U.S. Republicans.īut in Ottawa unruly protesters-many of whom blared truck horns throughout the day, occupied residential streets, and threw loud parties-sparked counter-protests. Last week, reports revealed that Silicon Valley billionaire Tom Siebel was one of the group’s leading benefactors, donating $90,000 to the Freedom Convoy movement that had also gained support from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and U.S. By early February, a GoFundMe account set up by one of the protest organizers, Tamara Lich, had raised $8 million in donations. With its purview widened to more common grievances, the Freedom Convoy gained support from Canadians outside the trucking industry who were tired of COVID-era restrictions. The protest began in opposition to the government’s introduction of a mandate requiring all cross-border truck drivers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.Īccording to the Canadian Trucking Alliance, roughly 90% of Canadian truck drivers were already vaccinated, but a minority of truckers objected to the new requirement for drivers hauling goods between Canada and the U.S.Īmru Salahuddien-Anadolu Agenc/Getty Images ![]() 28, occupying various streets around the nation’s capital. ![]() The brigade of truck-driving protesters from across Canada first converged in Ottawa on Jan. In the capital city, police and barricades have replaced protesters and trucks and, across the country, politicians and citizens are confronting the divide in civil society left in the wake of the departing demonstrators. While quiet has returned to Ottawa streets after three weeks of horn blaring by truck-driving protesters, the fallout of the nearly month-long saga will likely take longer to address. The RCMP also flagged 253 Bitcoin addresses and forbid local crypto exchanges from facilitating transactions with the accounts. The clearing of the capital came days after the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) ordered a freeze on 206 bank and corporate accounts managing millions in funds related to the protests. Three of the protest’s key organizers were arrested and charged with “mischief,” and two of them are now out on bail. During a three-day operation, Ottawa police deployed pepper spray and stun grenades to disperse crowds, towed away over 70 vehicles, and arrested 191 people, bringing a total of 389 charges against 103 of them. ![]()
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