Dominic Runghen
Staff reporter
Prime minister Justin Trudeau officially enacted the emergency act with the Liberal government and support from the NDP to deal with those who have taken part in the protests in Ottawa.
The protests in Ottawa are a group of truckers and protesters also known as the freedom convoy. They have been parading around the city to have the Canadian vaccine mandate abolished.
The reason these truckers want this mandate to be removed is because when crossing the border, the truckers must quarantine if not vaccinated. If you are quarantining every time, you cross the border, you are not able to do your job properly which means you are not making money.
According to Rachel Aiello’s article , “Unvaccinated Canadian truckers will have to quarantine under new mandate”, “fed say the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) association stated, the trucking industry moves approximately 80 percent of the annual $648 billion in Canada-U.S. trade”. That is an immense amount of money, and if our truckers are quarantining for 2 weeks every time they cross the border, it lessens the amount of food, gas, and other essential goods we need for survival.
The truckers have been blockading the borders of the U.S and Canada for approximately 2-3 weeks.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has finally put his foot down and has enacted the emergency act since he needed more power to deal with the taking over of Ottawa.
The emergency act can be used in many ways for different type of emergencies, in this case it gives the government the power to fight back against the protesters by making arrests, freezing bank accounts, and basically takes away the rights of people, meaning it goes against the charter of rights.
The main question in Canada today is, was enacting the emergencies act necessary?
The emergencies act is only used in very serious occasions, but why does the government think a group of peaceful protesters are a threat to Canada? Well, the truth is the truckers are protesting in a peaceful manner, but they are blockading the borders of U.S and Canada whish is preventing billions of dollars worth of goods each day, meaning our cities are not getting the products they ordered, and our grocery stores are running out of food. The best option to manage this crisis if for the government to take control of the situation. That is why the emergency act was necessary for the government to take control, for example arresting protesters, confiscating trucks, and even freezing peoples bank accounts. But the best way for all this conflict to be avoided is to trust our highly experienced scientist and get vaccinated so we can gradually start to overcome this catastrophe known as covid.
What’s going on with the Canada trucker strikes?
What the truckers want (and why Ottawa can’t give it to them)
Unvaccinated Canadian truckers will have to quarantine under new mandate, feds say
Unvaccinated Canadian truckers will have to quarantine under new mandate