- Canadians are withdrawing all their money from their bank accounts in response to the government’s Emergency Act.
- The act places crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrencies to be regulated under the Terrorist Financing Act, to the ire of politicians and personalities.
- The Freedom Convoy Protests finally ended after 24 days resulting in 191 arrests and 57 towed vehicles.
As a result of the Canadian government threats to freeze funds of all kinds including cryptocurrencies and the emergency powers of freezing 120 crypto addresses without a court order through a special injunction, Canadian people withdrew their funds to avoid the government’s actions.
The bank withdrawals were noticed by James Melville, an economic journalist from the UK.
The government’s emergency powers came as a response to the Freedom Convoy Protests. A series of protests and blockades against COVID-19 mandates in Canada, which started as a protest against vaccine mandates for crossing the US border, turned into protests about COVID-19 mandates in general.
The protests, which began on January 22, ended today after 24 days, resulting in 191 arrests and 57 towed vehicles. The Canadian government has threatened to add detainees to a ‘misconduct file’. People in this file will be banned from certain types of employment and could even be deemed as terrorists.
On February 14, the Canadian government made a controversial decision to invoke the Emergencies Act. This left crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrencies to be regulated under the Terrorist Financing Act.
The government’s use of emergency powers – for the first time in 50 years – drew controversy from even politicians. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the objective was simply to “deal with the current threat and get the situation under control.”
The emergency act resulted in freezing 120 crypto addresses that belonged to the protestors. This prevented all funds from being spent, hidden, or moved before a judgment. The funds were raised through cryptocurrency donations with addresses tied to BTC, ETH, LTC, ADA, and MXR.
On February 19, Russel Brand, the English comedian and actor, released a YouTube video criticizing the Canadian Prime Minister’s actions, where he commented on the sanctions imposed against Canadian truckers. Moreover, he criticized the freezing of their bank accounts and cryptocurrency assets. Brand called out Trudeau’s actions to be more akin to tyranny than democracy.
Kraken’s CEO Jesse Powell chimed in saying corporations have no choice but to follow the Canadian Government, even if it were against their will. In Powell’s words, “Due process is for plebs. Might make right in Canada.”
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