New rules going after blockade financing an overreach, critics say

TORONTO -

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

Finance Minister Chrystia 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.

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

"It's very tough on people when the activities of the Canadian government can lead to the financial meltdown of individuals associated with the protests who are guilty by association, by directive, and not by judicial process."

He noted that the legislative framework around the laws was crafted to target terrorists and transnational organized crime, so when individuals are flagged under the system, banks and other financial institutions may be reluctant to deal with related accounts flagged as high risk.

"Any financial institution who becomes aware of, or is informed to them by government, may be incredibly leery about dealing with that individual."

He said that invoking the Emergency Act is entirely out of proportion to the threats posed by the protesters and should be reserved for severe emergencies or when national security is compromised.

Vanessa Iafolla, a financial crime consultant, said the use of the measure was a "serious derivation from the normal democratic processes that we generally expect to see in Canadian society" and that the government could have gone about changing the rules without undertaking emergency powers.

She said that while accounts won't be shut down overnight, banks will have the option to eliminate from the market anyone involved in the protests.

"Clients will come under scrutiny and it is possible that many of them will be at risk of losing their access to all but the most basic banking services."

Iafolla said that it will be up to the banks to decide on their individual risk tolerance, but that on the money services business at least, Canadian financial institutions have been fairly risk averse.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday he invoked the Emergencies Act to bring to an end to antigovernment blockades he says are illegal and not about peaceful protest.

Freeland said the blockades were costing the economy hundreds of millions of dollars a day, as well as threatening democratic institutions and Canada's international standing.

She said it was important to follow the money to help put an end to the blockades, and that trucks that remain at the protests will have their insurance suspended, and corporate accounts will be frozen.

Canada's banking industry has so far declined to comment on the policy change.

Intact Insurance spokeswoman Kate Moseley-Williams said the company was carefully reviewing the announcement and awaiting further details.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.