The Canadian government met the "high" threshold in invoking never-used emergency powers to end last February's trucker protests, an inquiry has found.

Justice Paul Rouleau, who led the probe into the use of 1988 Emergencies Act, called the decision a "drastic move" but not a "dictatorial one".

The act bestows the government with added powers in times of crisis.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used it on 14 February 2022 - three weeks into the protests.

The People's Convoy trucker protest group will be taking its road show out West.

The recently formed protest entity, which operates under the tagline of "Let Freedom Roll," announced it would soon relocate its fleet of trucks from Washington, D.C., to California, as a means of protesting COVID-19 mandates within The Golden State.

The People's Convoy website cited a handful of congressional bills — which are subject to voting in the coming weeks — that will be the source of opposition protests.

It’s hard to take the "People’s Convoy" trucker caravan seriously. Starting as a protest against Covid mask and vaccine restrictions, it launched after most mandates had been lifted. Many of the convoy’s big rigs, pickups and SUVs are covered with QAnon conspiracy references. Convoy organizers promised to shut down Washington D.C. Instead, they parked their trucks at a stock-car racetrack in western Maryland and then did a few gaffe-filled laps around the D.C. Beltway.

An anti-COVID-19 restriction trucker convoy circling the nation’s capital will not be entering Washington, D.C. — at least not yet, organizers said Monday.

Organizer Brian Brase spoke to members of the convoy early Monday morning at Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland, where the convoy had camped out for the night. Brase told the assembled crowd that the convoy would not be entering the capital yet out of fear that it would be cast in the same light as the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Riot.

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.  

By invoking emergency powers and freezing the assets of Freedom Convoy protesters, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes clear that civil liberties protections mean little when the government can deny you access to your money. That financial weapon has been used in the past not just in autocracies but also in democracies against controversial (to some) businesses and organizations. But by targeting political protesters in a supposedly free country, Canada's government reminds us of the importance of keeping at least some resources beyond the reach of the state.

Hundreds of National Guard troops have been deployed in Washington, D.C. to help deal with trucker convoy protests that are set to start this week, officials have said.

The Department of Defense (DOD) said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the deployments of the guards, which had been requested by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and U.S. Capitol Police (USCP).

Canada told banks to unlock financial accounts belonging to individuals involved in a weekslong Covid-19 protest in Ottawa that police shut down this past weekend, according to a finance ministry official.

“They started [Monday] to unfreeze accounts,” Isabelle Jacques, a senior official in Canada’s finance department, told lawmakers Tuesday.

The step marks a reversal for the Liberal government, which has argued the sweeping power to freeze bank accounts and other assets was crucial during what was declared an emergency period.

Police succeeded Saturday in taking back control of downtown Ottawa from the "Freedom Convoy" truckers, methodically forcing out the anti-mandate protesters who occupied the city for three weeks.

A trucker-led convoy will kick off on Feb. 23 from the Barstow area in California, and head eastbound toward the capital of the constitutional republic—Washington D.C.—to peacefully protest to end the federal government’s emergency powers (pdf) declared since March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and restore freedoms protected by the Constitution.

Barstow is a city about 100 miles from Los Angeles where truckers often converge since it’s a major crossroads.