Joe Biden and others in his administration allegedly pressured the Canadian government to shut down the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests in February.
According to testimony in the public inquiry into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of the Emergency Act against the trucker-led protest against lockdown restrictions in February, U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg, among others, urged the Canadian government to clamp down on the peaceful protests.
On February 14th, Mr Trudeau took the unprecedented action of using emergency powers to clear the truck blockades in downtown Ottawa, by using extreme measures such as freezing the bank accounts of protesters and ordering the forceful removal of trucks from the streets.
According to the inquiry, which was established to determine if the drastic measures were justified, the decision to implement the Emergencies Act came just three days after Trudeau spoke over the phone with President Biden, who reportedly expressed his concerns over the potential for the trucker protests to spread to the United States, highlighting possible disruptions of the Super Bowl and on the streets of Washington D.C., POLITICO reports.
For his part, Mr Trudeau complained about the alleged American impact on the Freedom Convoy, such as “money, people, and political/media support.”
The day before the Biden-Trudeau call, Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland wrote in an email to her subordinates of the sentiment among her American counterparts: “They are very, very, very worried,” she said.
“If this is not sorted out in the next 12 hours, all of their northeastern car plants will shut down.”
