Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has learned that Prime Minister Trudeau “will inform the provinces he will invoke the Emergencies Act to give the government extra powers to deal with the protests across the country. But in a meeting with the Liberal caucus, the PM said there were no plans to deploy the military.”
The move follows a meeting Sunday of the federal cabinet and its Incident Response Group (IRG).
Trudeau tweeted late Sunday that the IRG discussed “further actions the government can take to help end the blockades and occupations.”
Earlier that day, Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live that the federal government has discussed invoking special emergency powers to deal with ongoing protests in Ottawa.
Blair described the attitude around invoking the Emergencies Act as “appropriate caution” rather than “reticence.”
As CBC concludes, the law gives the federal government carte blanche to cope with a crisis, including the ability to enact emergency powers that allow it to prohibit travel within a specified area or remove personal property, while imposing fines or jail time on people contravening new orders.
