OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – A large Canadian credit union earlier this year reported to police some of its customers who were making financial transactions supporting the Freedom Convoy.
As per Blacklock’s Reporter, records show Desjardins Group in a February 19 email to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) noted, “here is some information Desjardins wants to disclose.”
The email listed some of its customers who were under Emergencies Act (EA) rules, including a couple that made a $20,000 deposit.
“The money is used to pay some bills regarding marketing like signs and paper for the (protest),” noted Desjardin.
The email then noted to the police about the deposit, “we are waiting for more instructions in regards of the above.”
Desjardin also flagged to police customers who it deemed made “suspicious” transactions relating to fuel purchases.
Additionally, Desjardin went as far as reporting its customers who made cash withdrawals in the vicinity of Ottawa, which it claimed were made “in regards to the Ottawa convoy to pay some bills like hotels.”
“Freezing the bank accounts of Canadians engaged in political protest without due process is extraordinary,” Mandy England, counsel for the Government of Alberta, testified before the Public Order Emergency Commission last week.
“We have heard evidence it was not only accounts of those protesters but joint accounts, meaning Canadians who weren’t at the protest at all, had their accounts frozen,” noted England.
England said that the question about the freezing of bank accounts is whether it can “be accepted as sufficient justification for such a serious and broad infringement on the rights of Canadian citizens.”
On February 14 – the day the EA was invoked – Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland mandated certain bank accounts be frozen under the EA. In total, almost $8 million in funds from 267 people was frozen. Additionally, 170 bitcoin wallets were frozen.
During testimony before the Public Order Emergency Commission last Thursday, it was revealed that one Canadian bank executive suggested Freedom Convoy protesters could be labeled as “terrorists” to allow for a quick freezing of their funds, while another banker took the opposite position and cautioned against politicizing banks.
While Trudeau ultimately revoked the EA on February 23, the ability for the government to direct banks to freeze the accounts of citizens without a court order led to immense backlash by civil rights groups and others.
The hearings into Trudeau’s unprecedented use of the EA to crush the Freedom Convoy began on October 13 and concluded last Friday.
The Public Order Emergency Commission began a pubic policy phase to recommend potential amendments to existing legislation related to the Freedom Convoy this week, a process that includes round-tables of “experts.”