Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau invoked Emergency Act on Sunday to curb the ongoing truckers protest.
He said the Act would provide Police additional powers to take action against those who were allegedly indulged in illegal activities such as “protesting and blocking the road”. The financial institutes have been granted additional powers to curb financial support to the protesters.
A lot of the measures, and the words Trudeau used, eerily resembled the Indian situation during the farmers’ protest which lasted for over a year. The irony is he supported India’s protest but has opted for a strong measures when the shoes has shifted to the other foot.
Sample 1:
“Families and small businesses have been enduring illegal obstruction of their neighbourhoods. Occupying streets, harassing people, breaking the law; This is not a peaceful protest.”
Exactly the same happened in India in the name of “peaceful protest.”
Sample 2:
“The scope of these measures…(to keep) Canadians safe, protecting people’s job and restoring confidence in our institutions.”
Exactly the same was the casualty in India as police was reduced to being a mute spectator as rowdies climbed up the ramparts of Red Fort in Delhi and replaced India’s tricolour flag with a religious one. India’s institution, both executive and judiciary, and later legislative, took a beating in that spell.
Sample 3:
There are lingering questions as to who funded the farmers’ protest in India. In Canada though, the authorities have been brutally frank.
“Government had broadened anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules to include crowdfunding platforms and payments services. These changes cover all form of transactions, including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies.”
The financial institutes now have the power to temporarily block providing financial services to accounts, both personal and corporate, that might have been providing assistance to the blockades. The financial institutes have been asked to review their relationship with anyone who is involved in the blockades and report to the agencies.
On the government’s orders, the online fundraising platform GoFundMe had removed the fundraiser campaign for the platform over alleged violation of ‘terms of service’. The platform had withheld over 9 million dollars donated to the protesting truckers in Canada after the Public Safety Committee had voted to bring GoFundMe to testify about the fundraising for the truckers on their platform.
In India, a similar move by the Yogi Adityanath’s government is in crosshairs of judiciary.
The protests in Canada began on January 29 against vaccine mandate and Covid restrictions. It began in the national capital but then spread across the country. For several days now, the truckers have been blockading Ottawa and the US-Canada border.
