Tractor rolling out -- LNN

By Dori Modney with files from The Canadian Press

Organizer disbands Coutts Blockade

Feb 15, 2022 | 11:59 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB. — Tractors, trucks and other vehicles have begun to roll out of a Coutts, ending a blockade that paralyzed a U-S border crossing for more than two weeks.

Protesters had been restricting access to the main Alberta border crossing since Jan. 29 in a rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and broader health restrictions.

The convoy left one day after RCMP arrested 13 people and seized a cache of firearms and ammunition.

The organizer of the blockade felt they have accomplished what they set out to do and became concerned when a group were arrested and found to have weapons on the site.

Beginning of blockade at Coutts — Photo supplied by Jake Zackarias

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The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is reporting operations have now resumed at the Coutts port of entry, which was shutdown services on Saturday.

“We thank you for your patience and for helping us to minimize the impact of this border service disruption.”

Follow the border wait times for this port of entry on the CBSA’s Web site.

More information will be provided when available.

In related news, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland ran down the cost of two of the blockades. She said the incident at Coutts was costing $48-million daily, while a similar blockade at the Emerson, Manitoba border was costing $73-million in trade each day.

Also, The federal government is expanding financial routes to crack down on the trucker protests in a move that some are calling heavy-handed.

Freeland announced Monday that the government would require crowdfunding platforms to report to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada to better track potential funding of what she says are illegal blockades.

The move, to be made permanent and which includes cryptocurrency-based funding, will allow Fintrac to make more information available to police and other enforcement agencies, she said.

Freeland said that under the Emergency Act, the government has also authorized financial institutions to cut off services to both individual and business clients who they suspect are aiding the blockades, and that federal institutions will also help provide information to identify those involved.

Kim Manchester, managing director of financial intelligence training company ManchesterCF, says that flagging accounts in this way could financially ruin those targeted and make it difficult for them to get any financial services in the future.

He says that the new powers, which allow banks to suspend accounts without a court order and protects them from civil liabilities, go too far given the threat posed by the protestors.