Canada Invokes Emergency Rules To Cut Off Protesters’ Crypto Funds

Canada invokes the Emergencies Act from 1988 in an attempt to cut off the protestor’s access to funds including crypto as we can see today in our latest cryptocurrency news today.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in a bid to restrict the flow of funds to the truck drivers that are protesting the country’s COVID-19 restrictions. The government is now able to freeze bank accounts without going through the court system and also take many other actions to force an end to the demonstrations. Canada Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a press conference:

“We are broadening the scope of Canada’s anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financial rules so they cover crowdfunding platforms and the payment providers they use.”

The move came after a few weeks of protest by truckers calling themselves the “Freedom Convoy” which took to blocking roadways, flouting mask rules, and honking their horns to voice their displeasure with the COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The group’s GoFundMe account was shut down by the platform after pressure from the Canadian government at which point it turned to other funding methods like Bitcoin.

The Emergencies Act measures take an immediate effect as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced and now he has a week to receive support from both of Canada’s legislative bodies, the Senate and the House of Commons. While the government is name-checking crypto and has some leverage to freeze bank accounts connected to the crypto companies and users, this is still an argument for Bitcoin which is hard to shut down because it does not run on a centralized network controlled by the traditional payment provider.

Neeraj Agarwal from the crypto lobbying organization Coin Center tweeted:

 “Oh no please don’t expose how easily the state can lean on financial intermediaries [to] cut off political protest fundraising.”

The president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele also weighed in:

“Are these the people who like to give lessons to other countries about democracy and freedom?”

Are these the people who like to give lessons to other countries about democracy and freedom?

This is one of the top ranking countries in the “democracy index”?

Your credibility on these topics is now worth 0.pic.twitter.com/wCjh9bXwDt

— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) February 15, 2022