Canada
Related: About this forumBanks are moving to freeze accounts linked to convoy protests. Here's what you need to know
Using powers granted under the Emergencies Act, the federal government has directed banks and other financial institutions to stop doing business with people associated with the anti-vaccine mandate convoy occupying the nation's capital.
According to the regulations published late Tuesday, financial institutions are required to monitor and halt all transactions that funnel money to demonstrators a measure designed to cut off funding to a well-financed protest that has taken over large swaths of Ottawa's downtown core.
What new powers do the banks have under the Emergencies Act?
The government's new directive, called the "emergency economic measures order," goes beyond asking banks to simply stop transferring funds to protest organizers. The government wants banks to stop doing business with some people altogether.
The order says that banks and other financial entities (like credit unions, co-ops, loan companies, trusts and cryptocurrency platforms) must stop "providing any financial or related services" to people associated with the protests a move that will result in frozen accounts, stranded money and cancelled credit cards.
The government is also ordering insurance companies to suspend policies on vehicles that are part of an unlawful "public assembly."
more
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/emergencies-act-banks-ottawa-protests-1.6353968
Wow, this is playing hard ball.
SheltieLover
(59,605 posts)onecaliberal
(35,804 posts)Fiendish Thingy
(18,510 posts)Spazito
(54,348 posts)Banks will be working with law enforcement to decide who should be "de-banked."
A senior government official said "information will flow back and forth" between the RCMP and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), the government's financial intelligence unit.
Police could gather the names and licence plate numbers of people participating in a protest or an unlawful assembly and share that information with FINTRAC, the official said.
Fiendish Thingy
(18,510 posts)But more power to them if theyre willing to venture into the encampment and collect vehicle information; not sure if someone is actually going to ask to see the IDs of the insurrectionists, or if they will willingly show them perhaps monitoring social media the leaders identities are well known, and the data leak of GiveSendGo donors should result in consequences for the donors.
Spazito
(54,348 posts)amid criticism about the Ottawa Police's response to the law-breaking cabal so, hopefully, things will move along more quickly and I have no doubt there is already a large amount of information available as to who fits into the criteria laid out in the actions to be taken.
StrictlyRockers
(3,896 posts)These tactics will eventually be used against leftist protesters, too. It is short-sighted to think this is a good thing for the Canadian government to do.
Spazito
(54,348 posts)there needs to be consequences for repeatedly breaking the law and if protesters on the left do the same, which is highly doubtful, then I would expect the same consequences.
If the Emergencies Act is kept very narrow and is ended as soon as the law breaking so-called 'protesting' ends I can support it.
Fiendish Thingy
(18,510 posts)Leftists use their bodies, not vehicles.
MichMan
(13,172 posts)Fiendish Thingy
(18,510 posts)Violet_Crumble
(36,142 posts)Aren't the emergency measures temporary? How is that authoritarian?
And do you have a solution to what's happened in Ottawa?
pandr32
(12,168 posts)Spazito
(54,348 posts)but may have thought they wouldn't have to suffer the consequences that, it seems, are now being enacted.
The action also includes any vehicles being used to break the law not just the long haulers.