Ottawa headquarters: Justin Trudeau invokes an exceptional law to lift blockages

Criticized for its inaction, the Canadian Prime Minister strives to regain your hand after fifteen days of conflict with truckers.

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While the conflict of Canadian truckers, opposed to the health measures currently applied in the country, enters its third week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, finally resorted, Monday, February 14, to an exceptional law so. Attempting to end the Ottawa headquarters started on January 29 and lift the blockages that still paralyze border posts in Alberta and Manitoba.

This is the first time that this Legislation “on emergency measures”, adopted in 1988, is invoked by the federal government. In concrete terms, it grants the Royal Canadian Mounted Police the power to enforce provincial and municipal laws in the field. In the case of current blockages, it gives the police officers additional powers to inflict fines to truckers engaged in this movement, qualified several times of “illegal” by the Head of Government, or imprison the protestors blocking strategic sites. It also allows the seizure of the property of the protesters, in the present case their trucks, on simple decree.

A law “Limited in time and geographically targeted”

But “that does not mean that we appeal to the military”, immediately added Justin Trudeau, who had already claimed, Friday, that sending soldiers against civilians would be an option envisaged “as last, last resort “. “It is not limited to freedom of expression or the right to demonstrate peacefully. What we want is to ensure the safety of Canadians, protect jobs and restore confidence in our institutions,” he said Taking care to clarify that this law did not suspend the fundamental rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A way of standing out from the management of a certain stone Elliott Trudeau, his father. In 1970, then Prime Minister, he had worn out of the War Measures Act to send the army MATERING the violent actions carried out by the Quebec Liberation Front. This episode had provoked a sustainable trauma for the Canadian nation, which had seen an inexcusable derogation from the rule of law. “This law, promised Justin Trudeau, will be limited in time, geographically targeted and proportional to the threats against Canada’s security.”

The legislation specifies that such a law may be invoked when “critical emergency and temporary nature circumstances put seriously in danger the life, health or safety of Canadians”. These are these threats to the security of the country that seem to have pushed the Liberal government to trigger this exceptional approach. The very morning, the Canadian police had seized weapons, ammunition, bulletproof vests and arrested 11 people on the border blockade of Cutes in Alberta, crossing point with the United States, paralyzed for a week.

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/Media reports.