Canadian Gov’t Says It Has Frozen Crypto-Related Bank Accounts – and Will ‘Freeze More’
The Canadian government is going ahead with its controversial moves to end the “truckers’ protest” over COVID-19 restrictions that has brought much of the nation to a standstill – by freezing bank accounts and sharing crypto addresses with financial institutions in an effort to cut off protesters’ access to their own funds.
New police and government powers have been ushered in hurriedly as an amendment to the Emergencies Act, which effectively seeks to classify the protesters as terrorists, allowing banks and other bodies to freeze conventional bank accounts, including those related to crypto.
Notably, while accounts on centralized crypto exchanges can also be frozen for a variety of reasons, it's not the case with crypto wallets, controlled by their users.
The Canadian government finds that domestic and overseas supporters of the protests are attempting to fund the blockade operators using donations made in crypto.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stated:
“The names of both individuals and entities as well as crypto wallets have been shared by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with financial institutions, and accounts have been frozen. And more accounts will be frozen.”
In an opinion piece for the Toronto Sun, Freeland was quoted as stating further that “the consequences” of the move were “real and they will bite.”
But, the report continued,
“While Freeland made it sound as if only truckers with big rigs would be targeted, the rules stipulate the bank freezes can apply to anyone ‘directly or indirectly’ involved in the protests.”
And in the same media outlet, a leading conservative tabloid, the same columnist claimed that the “incredible powers that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given his
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