Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday invoked the Emergencies Act for the first-time in the country's history in an effort to quash the 'Freedom Convoy' protests, which have disrupted daily life in Ottawa, Canada's capital, and choked off hundreds of millions of dollars in vital cross-border trade with the U.S.

The act gives Canada's federal government and law enforcement extraordinary power for 30 days in order to clamp down on the economic and social disturbances caused by the two-week-old 'Freedom Convoy' protests, which are aimed at COVID-19 vaccine requirements for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border. At a Monday press briefing, Trudeau emphasized that the "scope of these measures will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they're meant to address," adding, "We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue."

Under the new authorities, police will have greater leeway to impose fines and imprison protesters, and tow vehicles blocking roads. Ottawa city police said they have opened 85 criminal offense investigations and received over 200 calls to their hate-crime hotline since the protestors arrived in the city in late January. The government can also designate and "secure and protect places and infrastructure" critical to the functioning of the Canadian economy, such as airports and border crossings. Canada's border agents are also turning away people who are attempting to enter the country to join the protests.

Canada's financial institutions will also have more power to freeze or suspend financial accounts, whether corporate or personal, suspected of being used to fund or further the "illegal blockades and occupations," said Chrystia Freeland, Canada's deputy prime minister and finance minister. On Saturday, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank), one of Canada's biggest and oldest financial institutions, announced it had frozen two personal bank accounts into which $1.1 million ($1.4 million CAD) had been deposited to support the 'freedom' protestors.

In late January, a group of Canadian truckers who called themselves the 'Freedom Convoy' assembled to drive from Canada's west coast to Ottawa, in the east. Along the way, ordinary Canadians frustrated by a lack of return to 'normal,' pre-pandemic life, joined the truckers in solidarity against COVID restrictions like vaccine passports and mask mandates.