Canada’s Justice Minister, David Lametti, has told Trump supporters who donated to the “Freedom Convoy” to “be worried” about having their bank accounts frozen.
Speaking with CTV News, when Lametti was asked if regular citizens who donated to the “Freedom Convoy” protests in opposition to the vaccine mandates should be worried about having their assets frozen by the government, Lametti singled out pro-Trumpers. The reporter asked:
You just compared people who may have donated to this to the same people who maybe are funding a terrorist. I just want to be clear here, sir. A lot of folks say, ‘Look, I just don’t like your vaccine mandates and I donated to this, now it’s illegal, should I be worried that the bank can freeze my account?’ What’s your answer to that?
“Well, I think if you are a member of a pro-Trump movement who’s donating hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of dollars to this kind of thing, they oughta be worried,” responded Lametti.
Lametti also said that truckers could lose their trucking license if they participated in the protests or if their company permitted them to participate in the protest.
The justice minister’s declaration comes after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau evoked emergency powers to quell the protests that have crippled the country in recent weeks in defiance of the government’s vaccine mandates. Among the many measures that Trudeau’s government would be taking, the prime minister’s administration said that people who participate or donate to the protest could have their bank accounts frozen.
“This is about following the money. This is about stopping the financing of these illegal blockades,” Trudeau’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said at a press conference on Monday. “We are today serving notice if your truck is being used in these illegal blockades your corporate accounts will be frozen.”
“The insurance on your vehicle will be suspended,” she added. “Send your semi-trailers home, the Canadian economy needs them to be doing legitimate work, not to be illegally making us all poor.”
Despite the pushback, several Canadian premiers have begun to scale back coronavirus restrictions, with Ontario Premier Doug Ford announcing on Tuesday that “the world is done” with the pandemic while pressing to “move forward.”
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