Trudeau takes rare step of invoking national emergency to quell the protests. [View all]

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the rare step of declaring a national public order emergency on Monday — allowing him to temporarily suspend civil liberties — in a push to end protests that have paralyzed the center of the Canadian capital for more than two weeks and reverberated across the country.

The move, the first time a Canadian government has taken such action in half a century, is Mr. Trudeau’s most aggressive response since the crisis began. It will allow the federal government to override civil rights to reopen impeded border crossings and clear the blockade of about 400 trucks in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, that has been overwhelming the police, snarling traffic, undermining the local economy and disturbing residents in the normally quiet city.

The invocation of the Emergencies Act confers enormous temporary powers on the federal government, allowing it to do what is necessary to restore public order, for example, banning public assemblies or restricting travel to and from specific areas. While the prime minister and the cabinet can invoke the act whenever they see fit if the security of Canada is deemed under threat, the decision must then be approved by Parliament within a week.

The protests have multiplied across the country, including an almost weeklong blockade of a bridge vital to the supply chains of the global automobile industry. The response by the police and all levels of government to the crisis has been widely criticized as inadequate. Mr. Trudeau, some critics contend, should have intervened earlier and perhaps even sent in the army. The decision to invoke the law came as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta said it had arrested 11 people and seized a large cache of weapons, including 13 long guns, handguns and a machete, linked to protests in Alberta.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/14/world/canada-protests-news/as-traffic-resumes-on-crucial-border-crossing-ottawa-remains-snarled