(Gregg Pupecki, Headline USA) Back in February the world witnessed one of the strictest government crackdowns on peaceful protesters in North American history.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau enacted the Emergencies Act, bequeathing himself limitless powers to crush his political opposition. Trudeau used military-style force along with financial powers, having his government tell institutions to freeze all assets and personal bank accounts associated with Freedom Convoy participants. Ramifications from Trudeau’s authoritarian actions are still reverberating in Canada today.
Freedom Convoy spokesman Benjamin Dichter was one of thousands of citizens who had their personal bank accounts frozen. He wrote a complaint letter to the bank and recently released their response in an online post.
Scotiabank, the fifth largest bank in Canada wrote,” Please accept our sincere apologies for the frustration and inconvenience this situation may have caused and thank you for your patience while we prepared our response.”
The letter released by Dichter showed the bank apologized for the frustration and inconvenience that occurred from the frozen accounts, but did not apologize for the action of freezing them.
“While most customer accounts have been unfrozen, it is important to remember that some accounts may be frozen for a variety of other reasons, including to comply with court orders or proceedings related to illegal activities or other unrelated legal matters.” Scotiabank wrote.
Dichter believes that the bank was forced to freeze accounts by orders from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and now they are in damage control with their customers.
“I don’t believe the banks went out of their way to target clients. I believe It came from somewhere else. They didn’t do it on their own accord,” Dichter said.
The letter from the bank supports the claim of RCMP’s involvement.
“We can confirm that financial institutions acted quickly to unfreeze accounts after the RCMP notified us that it believes that individuals and entities previously identified are no longer engaged in conduct or activities prohibited under the Emergency Measures Regulations,” Scotiabank wrote.
