Trudeau to use rare emergency powers in attempt to quell protests - reports

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, will invoke a rare emergency law to give the federal government immense powers as he attempts to quell protests that have plunged the country into a protracted crisis.

Trudeau is expected to invoke the Emergencies Act on Monday morning, according to multiple Canadian media outlets, the first time the legislation has been used.

Also on Monday, Ontario announced it would accelerate dropping its coronavirus restrictions, becoming the latest province to dramatically scale back public health measures meant to blunt the Omicron wave.

Protests over those public health restrictions have for weeks paralysed the nation's capital, halted trade and raised broader questions over the ability for police to enforce existing laws.

In an indication of the deteriorating situation, Trudeau met with both his cabinet and provincial premiers on Monday morning, where he reportedly told them he would use the Emergencies Act. The law gives the government broad powers for 30 days, but Trudeau is not expected to call in the military.

The law defines an emergency as a 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". In order for the law to be used, the federal government must consult with both the provinces and cabinet. There must be a belief the protesters constitute a national emergency and cannot be dealt with under existing laws.

The current law replaced the War Measures Act which was used by Trudeau's father Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who was prime minister during the "October crisis" - a period of separatist violence in Quebec, in 1970.

Protesters in Ottawa have refused leave the nation's capital, despite pleas from local, provincial and federal leaders. As they have shown an increasing brazenness in flouting the city's laws, including setting up a hot tub near parliament, residents have taken to the streets in anger. Over the weekend, counter-protesters stopped more trucks from entering the downtown core.

On Sunday, the Ottawa Citizen reported two members of Joint Task Force 2, the military's elite special forces unit, were under investigation for their alleged involvement in the convoy protest.

The city's mayor, Jim Watson, has offered to negotiate with the leaders of the protests to remove them from residential neighbourhoods, but a deal between the city and protesters was marred by confusion after Tamara Lich, one of the protest leaders, said there was no deal, before then suggesting it was real.

On Monday, a poll from the Angus Reid Institute found that nearly three-quarters of Canadians wanted the protesters to return home, suggesting waning support for the blockade that has reached an unprecedented level in Ottawa.

The police's inability to remove protesters comes in stark contrast to events in the city of Windsor over the weekend, where officers were able to clear protesters from the Ambassador Bridge. The police action ended the blockade that lasted nearly a week and halted hundreds of millions in trade between Canada and the United States. Police arrested nearly 30 people and seized 12 vehicles.

With the bridge now open, pressure is mounting on federal, provincial and municipal leadership to solve the protests in Ottawa, which have entered their third week, as well as blockades at the American border in Alberta and Manitoba. Both provinces have recently scaled back their coronavirus restrictions.

Ontario became the latest province to speed up its reopening after Premier Doug Ford said on Monday that the Omicron wave in the province was fading. "This is great news and a sign of just how far we've come together in our fight against the virus. While we aren't out of the woods just yet, we are moving in the right direction," he said at a press conference. Ontario will lift capacity limits on restaurants and businesses on Thursday and if the current trajectory of infections continues, will drop its vaccine passport system on 1 March. Ford said the province will keep masking rules in place for the near future.