And the Balloon Goes Up in Canada

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has invoked Emergencies Act to deal with the protests shutting down Ottawa.

Clearly this means that the authorities will be ratcheting up pressure on the (largely violent) protesters though I doubt that they would take it to the level that they did with the (largely peaceful) First Nations People protesting pipeline construction through their ancestral lands, but the "Truckers" are, after all, overwhelmingly wypipo.

I rather think that the white supremacist organizers, though not necessarily the useful idiots that they have recruited, will retreat at the first, "Whiff of grapeshot," but YMMV:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he's invoking the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canada's history to give the federal government temporary powers to handle ongoing blockades and protests against pandemic restrictions.

"It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law," Trudeau told a news conference Monday afternoon.

"It is no longer a lawful protest at a disagreement over government policy. It is now an illegal occupation. It's time for people to go home."

Trudeau said the measures will be geographically targeted and "reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address."

The unprecedented deployment of the Emergencies Act gives police more tools to restore order in places where public assemblies constitute illegal and dangerous activities, such as blockades and occupations, he said. Trudeau said the act also will enable the RCMP to enforce municipal bylaws and provincial offences where required.

………

The Emergencies Act, which replaced the War Measures Act in the 1980s, defines a national emergency as a temporary "urgent and critical situation" that "seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it."

The act gives special powers to respond to emergency scenarios affecting public welfare (natural disasters, disease outbreaks), public order (civil unrest), international emergencies or war emergencies.

It grants cabinet the ability to "take special temporary measures that may not be appropriate in normal times" to cope with an "urgent and critical situation" and the resulting fallout. It is still subject to the protections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This could get ugly.