OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland confirmed on Thursday that financial institutions have begun freezing the bank accounts of protesters involved in the Freedom Convoy.
“The names of both individuals and entities, as well as crypto wallets, have been shared by the RCMP with financial institutions, and accounts have been frozen, and more accounts will be frozen,” Freeland told the press yesterday.
“In terms of the specifics on whose accounts are being frozen, you now have the regulations, the financial service providers have those regulations as well, and they, working with law enforcement, will be making the operational decisions,” continued Freeland, confirming that police, government, and financial institutions, are working together to freeze the funds of citizens.
Giving a breakdown of the “regulations,” Bloomberg explained:
The emergency orders require virtually every participant in the Canadian financial system — banks, investment firms, credit unions, loan companies, securities dealers, fundraising platforms and payment and clearing services — to determine whether they possess or control property of a person who’s attending an illegal protest or providing supplies to demonstrators.
If they find such a person in their customer list, they must freeze their accounts and report it to the RCMP or Canada’s intelligence service, the regulations say. Any suspicious transactions must also be reported to the country’s anti-money-laundering agency, known as FINTRAC.
Since the announcement of the financial crackdown by Freeland on Monday, many have taken to social media to decry the move as unconstitutional and an abuse of power.
“There is not [an] emergency. There is no violence. Most premiers told Trudeau this is ridiculous and unnecessary. Trudeau is using it as a pretext to criminalize conservative crowdfunding,” wrote Rebel News publisher Ezra Levant.
“Keep upping the ante, you blustering, bullying fools. You have now extended arbitrary govt control to vehicle insurance and banking, and this is supposed to bring peace and reassure Canadians,” added Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson.
According to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which announced Thursday that it was taking legal action against the Trudeau government, “The emergency orders require financial institutions to turn over personal financial information to CSIS & the RCMP & to freeze the bank accounts of those who attended, or provided assistance to those participating in, a prohibited assembly — all without judicial oversight.”
“This use of the Emergencies Act is unnecessary, unjustifiable and unconstitutional. The high threshold to invoke the act has not been met. It is in light of all these violations of civil liberties that we will be taking the government to court.”
As articulated by LifeSiteNews correspondent David James, this type of financial crackdown is precisely why many fear the move toward an entirely digital, cashless society.
“What Freeland has outlined is an unprecedented incursion into financial activity that is designed to lock the people whom the government deems to be undesirable out of the system entirely,” wrote James in an op-ed.
“It confirms what many have been warning about for some time: that one of the core elements of the so-called Great Reset is to enslave populations by surveilling and controlling their transactions. China has already implemented its version of digital tyranny with its Social Credit System, which it will combine with its Central Bank Digital Currency [CBDC]. Now Trudeau and Freeland have drawn back the curtain in Canada to reveal their version of digital despotism.”