SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The latest is insane.
Using powers granted under the Emergencies Act, the federal government has directed banks and other financial institutions to stop doing business with people associated with the anti-vaccine mandate convoy occupying the nation's capital.
According to the regulations published late Tuesday, financial institutions are required to monitor and halt all transactions that funnel money to demonstrators — a measure designed to cut off funding to a well-financed protest that has taken over large swaths of Ottawa's downtown core.
"Financial institutions" aren't just banks.
The government is also ordering insurance companies to suspend policies on vehicles that are part of an unlawful "public assembly."
These financial institutions can't handle cash, issue a loan, extend a mortgage or more generally facilitate "any transaction" of a "designated person" while the Emergencies Act is in place.
The regulations define a "designated person" who can be cut off from financial services as someone who is "directly or indirectly" participating in a "public assembly that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace," or a person engaging in "serious interference with trade" or "critical infrastructure."
So basically, the Canadian government chickened out and mandated instead that the banks and insurance companies to do everything. Then rat out their customers to the government once they're done.
Banks also are required to "disclose without delay" the "existence of property in their possession or control" or "any information about a transaction or proposed transaction" related to a "designated person" to both the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
"Those authorities are now in force and they're being used," said Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino. "It's incredibly important that we follow the money."
It's not "incredibly important" for anyone interested in rule of law, due process, or proportionality of punishment. And the final part:
The Emergencies Act and its associated regulations are in effect for only 30 days; that period could be shorter if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet revoke it or if Parliament scuttles it after a vote. But a senior government official said there could be long-term implications.
"For the most part, financial institutions can decide who they do business with and they may decide to cease offering financial services," the official said.
Mark Blumberg is a lawyer at Blumberg Segal LLP who specializes in non-profit and charity law. In an interview, he said that while the Emergencies Act gives banks time-limited powers, these institutions "may just decide to shut the person's account down" because there could be "huge risks" for banks servicing these customers in the future.
So rather than deal with the protest in a sensible manner (they're breaking the law, right?), the Canadian government has put forward this ridiculous "emergency" and deputized a bunch of businesses to go crazy with legal immunity (but only if they toe the government line). In the meantime, the protesters can lose their insurance and freeze finances. So what's going to happen to protesters of any sort in the future, if banks and insurance companies see them as liabilities due to this emergency?
Now imagine if Trump and US financial institutions had this kind of power over BLM protesters. Wouldn't be a problem, right?
Hopefully, this will get reversed in the Canadian courts, because otherwise it's a huge move towards tyranny, particularly of the fascist sort.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 18 2022, @01:54AM (43 children)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @02:05AM (36 children)
I guess the people being hurt by the blockade just don't count to you.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @02:13AM
It's just a nice and cozy CHAZ/CHOP for Canada, which as we know from 2020 is legitimate protest activity.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday February 18 2022, @03:03AM (13 children)
The financial industry can cut them off too, no problem. Just transact intentionally or not with a designated person and you can become a designated person yourself.
I find it interesting how so many people just don't get how abusive this is. The blockade is just an illegal protest, right? Canada has law enforcement for that. It's their job to fix this sort of thing. Why are they creating this whole new way of punishing people (using faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats at banks and such) rather than the stuff that works?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @03:35AM (7 children)
Their big mistake was NOT storming the Capitol Building, like the Canadians did in 1812, or on the Plains of Abraham, or the sinking of the Caroline and the Sons of Liberty in 1837.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 18 2022, @03:51AM (6 children)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @06:59PM (5 children)
In other words, you do not know that all these other "disturbances" were the result of American, or American-based interference with Canadian sovereignty? Left out the Fenian Invasion [irishstudies.ca] in 1866. In case you are slow, the Ontario Trucker's protest is an American operation.
(Interesting, saw a protester carrying a Canadian flag, except there were stripes of white and red, and the Maple Leaf was filled with stars? Do they want to be assimilated into the Wacko States of America? What happened to the wall [theinertia.com]?)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 19 2022, @01:01PM (4 children)
And then you follow up with an example which didn't interfere with Canadian sovereignty (the Fenian invasion) because Canada wasn't sovereign - it was a territory of the UK empire.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 21 2022, @06:56AM (3 children)
And guess what, you really stupid and uneducated American, was the result of the Fenian invasion? MY Gawd, or any other god, khallow you dip below the norm for an educated Soylentil. Perhaps some history, and science , and maybe just some community college general education? Beats the hell out of the libertariantard suck-hole you seem to have gotten yourself into. We are pulling for you, khallow!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 21 2022, @10:31AM (2 children)
Sounds like you can answer that question yourself. Awful lot of pretentious whining for something that's completely irrelevant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 21 2022, @09:56PM (1 child)
American False Flag operations to overthrow a government that is not in El Salvador or Vietnam? Pretty relevant, I would think. Who is paying you, khallow?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 21 2022, @10:26PM
If you had read the story, it was either Ireland or Canada, depending on which invaders you asked.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @07:32AM (1 child)
"Never let a crisis go to waste." Police actions are subject to oversight, public scrutiny, and challenge in court. This bypasses all of that completely, giving the government carte blanche to go after malcontents and undesirables (read: political opponents) with impunity. The respect I was gaining for Justin Trudeau over how he was handling this situation is now completely gone. This needs to be stopped now before it can take root. The blockade was a problem, but this is an actual threat.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday February 20 2022, @02:56AM
Actually, those actions are still open to scrutiny.
The relevant law requires a post-emergency review of what ended up happening as a result of dealing with the state of emergency.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @02:17PM (2 children)
Just follow the example of the US, go in and beat the shit out of them.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 18 2022, @02:30PM
(Score: 2) by https on Friday February 18 2022, @03:57PM
Uh, they're mostly middle-aged white guys, who want something the police want too, so there's a bit of a problem.
Police in Canada have no problem arresting a thousand people [nanaimobulletin.com] if they're supporting brown people.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 18 2022, @08:01AM (20 children)
Who is being "hurt by the blockade"? I can see that government is being embarrassed. Corporations are facing a few day's shutdown. People who work for those corporations may miss a paycheck. I see inconveniences, no real harm being done. Do you have examples of people being hurt?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @09:19AM (7 children)
And, let half a dozen "darkies" walk across a highway outside of Fergeson, and the entire town has been burned to the ground! Your racism is showing, Runaway. Best tuck in that white sheet.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @11:00AM (6 children)
citations needed
it seems that the towns burnt down in the past couple of years were burned by good woke BLM and Antifa people
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @07:04PM (5 children)
No, they weren't. You are an idiot. The point was that your people said that blocking roads by BLM [cbsnews.com] was criminal, but you seem tolerate fascists doing the same with their trucks. Double standard much? Funny how racism will make you do that.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 18 2022, @08:24PM (2 children)
Ahhhhhhhh, you win a fraction of a point. Yeah, blocking roads is bad. Especially when those roads lead to hospitals and medical facilities. Even more so when rioters attempt to pull people out of their cars to beat them to death. Even worse when a rioter points a weapon at a motorist to intimidate that motorist. All of which BLM/Antifa have been guilty of in the past couple years.
So, tell me - have these truckers blockaded any hospitals? Have they beaten any motorists to death? Have they actually shot at anyone? I hate double standards myself, but, we can kinda graph this shit, and create a spectrum of 1. kinda bad, 2. really bad, 3. misdemeanor bad, 4. felony bad, and at the worst extreme, 5. Marxist bad. I think the truckers are hovering between 3 and 4 at the moment. They haven't burnt any cities down, have they? They haven't firebombed a nursery school? Not roasting puppies for dinner? Are they marching through outdoor restaurants, assaulting and intimidating innocent people enjoying their dinners? BLM/Antifa have done all those things. Well, maybe they haven't eaten cute puppies on camera, but all the rest has been documented.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @09:28PM (1 child)
Runaway triggered!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 21 2022, @07:06AM
Runaway Triggered, and flipped into revealing his real identity! I have it, on good soylentil scuttle butt, that Runaway1956 is actualy : . . . Paul Cotton, less smart brother of Tom Cotton, a total idiot who some how, (well, it is Arckansas, and he is married, well, so to someone not his cousin, and not a Huckbee, nor "huckabee cousin" , squirrel brains not included.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @08:24PM
Equal protection under the law is a core principle of Liberal Democracy. Bourgeois Marxists normalized road blocking as protest with little push back from authorities and now the working class will be granted the same right. The hypocrisy is yours!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 19 2022, @04:47AM
Your hypocracy is right there and you can't even see what you wrote. You libtards are so fucking stupid. So if BLM block roads, it's democracy, right? But if the truckers do it, they're fascists. You wrote it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @02:20PM
If they live paycheck to paycheck they are being hurt.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 18 2022, @06:14PM (9 children)
Shocking nobody, conservatives love inflation and caravans at the border now.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 18 2022, @06:51PM (8 children)
Since they are blocking the road am I allowed to go run them over with my car now?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @08:28PM (5 children)
You're endorsing Charlottesville now? tbh, my money would be on the truck.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 18 2022, @10:07PM (4 children)
Clutch those pearls harder because I definitely wasn't being sarcastic.
These folks, on the other hand, were deadly serious about it not too long ago:
Republicans in Florida and Oklahoma have passed laws protecting drivers who hit protestors with cars. [slate.com]
Fox News, Daily Caller delete posts encouraging people to drive through protests [cnn.com]
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Saturday February 19 2022, @12:07AM (3 children)
The real problem is that you'll need to clutch the steering wheel on something that can run over a 18 wheeler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 19 2022, @08:39PM (2 children)
If only you had something like, a backhoe!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 20 2022, @02:25AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday February 21 2022, @12:17PM
Here you go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azEvfD4C6ow [youtube.com]
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday February 19 2022, @01:58AM (1 child)
You're gonna run over a tractor trailer with your car? Please have the camera rolling! And let us know what kind of car you have that can do this
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday February 20 2022, @03:00AM
A Euclid? Those were all over Winnipeg in the 60's moving massive amounts or earth and stuff to temporarily raise the Winnipeg permanent dike system to keep the Red River in its banks and prevent the city from flooding.
They were huge.
So are the tractor trailers. Kind of like a battler between giant dinosaurs.
If I were to bet, my money would be on the Euclid.
(Score: 5, Informative) by hendrikboom on Friday February 18 2022, @10:10PM
The continual truck horns are loud enough to cause hearing damage to nearby residents.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @05:08PM (5 children)
Don't flatter yourself too much! Even a blind pig can sometimes find an acorn.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 19 2022, @12:05AM (4 children)
You do realize that the pig would be doing that by smell in the first place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 19 2022, @04:50AM (2 children)
Speaking of smell, this entire website is beginning to stink. There's no freedom of expression here- censorship by the angry libtard mob.
https://www.thefire.org/ [thefire.org]
(Score: 0, Spam) by TheRealAristarchus on Saturday February 19 2022, @06:42AM
Noticed that. The smell is starting to be way too much.
(Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Saturday February 19 2022, @07:16PM
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday February 20 2022, @03:04AM
And the pig would probably find a truffle instead of an acorn.