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Photo by Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images
For four weeks in Ottawa, Ontario, the so-called Freedom Convoy, involving hundreds of trucks and passenger vehicles, held a series of protests against Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions.
Participants in the convoy, which departed Kingston, Ontario, on Jan. 22 before arriving in Ottawa for planned demonstrations on the weekend of Jan. 29, blocked access to streets in Canada’s capital.
On Feb. 14, in response to the protests, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked Canada’s Emergencies Act, a federal statute established in 1988 but never used before. The act authorizes “the taking of special temporary measures to ensure safety and security during national emergencies.”
Trudeau said the “measures will be time-limited, geographically targeted and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.”