Freeland warned convoy account seizures caused blowback for banks
Internal emails obtained by Blacklock's published Tuesday morning shows that banks were facing extreme customer blowback after accounts of those supporting the anti-lockdown Freedom Convoy last February.
DOCUMENTS: Deputy finance minister was desperate to 'get the heat off the banks' after freezing accounts of #FreedomConvoy sympathizers: "This is a MISTAKE." https://t.co/A12eXPtNX3 #cdnpoli @FinanceCanada pic.twitter.com/dToRSen80q
— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) January 10, 2023
“This is causing the banks considerable concern for the safety of their employees. Indirectly, if we aren’t careful on this they will pull back," said Finance Minister Michael Sabia to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland in an email on February 18, 2022.
After freezing bank accounts during the Freedom Convoy, Freeland claims she "would have preferred not to have to do this," and she "regret[s] that happened to those people."
— Efrain Flores Monsanto 🇨🇦🚛 (@realmonsanto) November 24, 2022
In her view, she was protecting "hundreds of thousands of Canadian jobs and families." pic.twitter.com/7HOPuOrHiS
Freeland announced the account seizures in a press conference on February 14; the day the federal government used the Emergencies Act to end the weeks-long protests in the nation's capital.
11. Here's Freeland announcing that anyone who donated to the trucker crowdfunds is a terrorist financier, and can have their bank accounts seized WITHOUT a court order. Freeland will "share relevant information" about her enemies list with the banks: pic.twitter.com/f1osVx550x
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) February 15, 2022
"The (RCMP) Commissioner said that people with frozen accounts should go to their banks to have them unfrozen ..This is a MISTAKE. They should go to local law enforcement. This keeps the heat off the bank branches and reduces the risk of violence," Sabia wrote to his counterparts at Public Safety.
Freeland told the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC), the inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act against peaceful demonstrations, that seizing bank accounts was an "incentive" for the protests to end.
WATCH: Freeland tells lawyer for Alberta that seizing bank accounts was a financial "incentive" to convince convoyers to disband, states her concern for the presence of children in the protest and the potential for violence to erupt.
— Efrain Flores Monsanto 🇨🇦🚛 (@realmonsanto) November 24, 2022
MORE: https://t.co/NkdySDLNY0 pic.twitter.com/RCt2NTyCQm
To see all of Rebel News' coverage of the POEC, please visit www.TruckerCommission.com.
Sheila Gunn Reid
Chief Reporter
Sheila Gunn Reid is the Editor-in-Chief, Alberta Bureau Chief, member of the board of directors, and host of The Gunn Show at Rebel News. Sheila also serves as President of the Independent Press Gallery of Canada. A mother of three and longtime conservative activist, Sheila is the author of bestselling books, including her most recent release, Independence Blueprint: What Alberta Can Learn From Quebec.
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