OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Canadians who had their bank accounts wrongly frozen may be compensated by the federal government due to the stipulations of the Emergencies Act that Prime Minister Trudeau used to squash the peaceful anti-COVID mandate protests initiated by the Freedom Convoy.
Blacklock’s Reporter reported on April 7 that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that her department was not aware of any account holders who were blacklisted “wrongly.”
“The government is not aware of anyone who suffered losses due to accounts being wrongly frozen,” Freeland wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons. However, some banks that were frozen were not those ordered to be closed by the government.
Canadian banks went beyond the list of Convoy supporters that the RCMP provided for them and froze a number of accounts at their own discretion.
The police blacklist contained names from vehicles “that were actively” participating in the Freedom Convoy, but the owner and operators were not all identified.
In March, the Canadian Bankers Association told Members of Parliament that additional accounts were frozen based on the banks’ own “risk based” reviews.
As the Canadian government has moved from sanctioning its own citizens to sanctioning Russia, the feds are currently undergoing a lengthy review process that is part of the Emergencies Act legislation. In addition, the government is being sued for actions that both commentators on the left and the right have categorized as dubious if not illegal.
Most bank accounts were swiftly unfrozen after Trudeau dropped the heavy handed measure as it looked like it wouldn’t pass a Senate review.
Section 48 of the Emergencies Act says that “reasonable compensation” may be awarded “to any person who suffers loss” as a result of unjust actions by the government.