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March 14, 2022 - Epoch Times

19:27

Banks Confiscate $1.4M in Funds from Truckers, Freeze Assets; Compare Donations to Terrorism Funding

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	This is your Daily Facts Matter Update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
	And now let's begin today's discussion over in Canada, where the Prime Minister has just doubled down in opposition to the Freedom Convoy.
	That's because, just yesterday, Mr.
	Justin Trudeau, who is, of course, the Canadian Prime Minister, he invoked what's known as the Emergencies Act in order to deal with the trucker protest.
	Now, in case you've never heard of it, which if you're not a Canadian, that's very likely, the Emergencies Act was passed back in 1988, and it is the successor to the previous War Measures Act.
	Essentially, it gives the federal government extraordinary powers to deal with things like the trucker convoy.
	It's very similar to the government declaring martial law.
	And this Emergencies Act has actually never been invoked in Canada before.
	This is quite literally the first time.
	However, its predecessor, the War Measures Act, it has been invoked three times in Canadian history.
	Once during the First World War, another time during the Second World War, and then a third time during the 1970s Quebec separatist movement.
	And now, 50 years later, we are seeing Canada use this playbook again.
	Here's specifically what Justin Trudeau said yesterday when he announced the invocation of the Emergencies Act.
	The federal government has invoked the Emergencies Act to supplement provincial and territorial capacity to address the blockades and occupations.
	I want to be very clear.
	The scope of these measures will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate Now, what does this actually mean in practice?
	What powers does the federal government now have?
	And to start with, the federal government can now do almost anything, including sending in the military to deal with the truckers.
	Although, yesterday, when he was making the announcement, Justin Trudeau specifically said that he was not going to call in the troops just yet, although, frankly, he did not rule it out in the near future.
	Here's specifically what he said on this front.
	We will not and cannot allow these illegal and dangerous activities to continue.
	However, we are not using the Emergencies Act to call in the military.
	And so, what will his government actually be doing now that they have all this power?
	Well, it appears that to start with, their actions will be two-fold.
	First of all, Justin Trudeau said that the local police will be given more tools as well as more resources to impose fines as well as to imprison protesters who are blocking roads or blocking infrastructure.
	And then secondly, the government laid out a plan to attack the protesters financially.
	Specifically, banks can now regulate and restrict funding that supports the blockades.
	Drivers who are using their trucks to block the roads, they can have their corporate bank accounts frozen and their vehicle insurance suspended.
	And then also, the government will target the crowdfunding services and the payment systems that the protesters were using to gather funding.
	And it's that last point that is, I believe, really worth highlighting.
	Because the Trudeau government is now authorizing the banks throughout the entire country to unilaterally freeze people's accounts on the basis of suspicion alone.
	There is no court order which is required, and the banks can do so with legal impunity.
	Here's in fact what this new law, which applies to personal accounts, corporate accounts, and it covers all forms of transactions, including even cryptocurrencies, here's what this new law says.
	A bank or other financial service provider will be able to immediately freeze or suspend an account without a court order.
	Banks will be protected against civil liability for actions taken in good faith.
	And then furthermore, and perhaps even more worrying, is the fact that when the Trudeau government's finance minister announced this form of financial warfare, she tacitly compared the peaceful protesters with terrorists.
	Here's specifically what she said.
	We are broadening the scope of Canada's anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules so that they cover crowdfunding platforms and the payment service providers they use.
	This is about following the money.
	This is about stopping the financing of these illegal blockades.
	Meaning that all of the grassroots funding for these protests is now being targeted as terrorist financing.
	With the ultimate goal behind this, at least I imagine, being to essentially punish and starve the protesters so that they are forced to go home.
	Here's in fact how Canada's Deputy Prime Minister bluntly put it.
	If your truck is being used in these illegal blockades, your corporate accounts will be frozen, the insurance on your vehicle will be suspended.
	And the banks have already started to comply.
	For instance, TD Bank, which is the largest bank in Canada in terms of assets, they have already started to freeze multiple bank accounts, totaling over 1.4 million Canadian dollars.
	And most of that money, it came from the original GoFundMe campaign that was raising money for the truckers.
	However, as we mentioned in a previous episode, GoFundMe wound up closing that campaign, and then another company, one that's called GiveSendGo, replaced them as the main fundraising for the convoy.
	Now, to this day, on that new platform, the organizers have now raised close to $10 million.
	However, given the state of the situation in Canada right now, It might be very difficult for that money to actually be dispersed to the protesters.
	That is just the reality of fighting back against the system.
	Because, just as an example, you might remember that back in 2020, when Kamala Harris was donating money to bail out BLM rioters, well, that was labeled as activism.
	However, if you yourself donate money to a peaceful truck protest, well, that is on the contrary labeled as terrorism.
	It really brings to mind, at least to my mind, that quote from Voltaire, which says this, Regardless though, getting back to the topic of the Emergencies Act, late last night, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, they came out and condemned Justin Trudeau for invoking this act.
	In a statement that they released, they claimed that the Canadian federal government did not meet the necessary threshold that's actually necessary in order to invoke something as serious as essentially martial law.
	Here's specifically what they said in a statement.
	The federal government has not met the threshold necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act.
	The Emergencies Act can only be invoked when a situation seriously threatens the ability of the government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Canada when the situation cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.
	Governments regularly deal with difficult situations and do so using powers granted to them by democratically elected representatives.
	Emergency legislation should not be normalized.
	It threatens our democracy and our civil liberties.
	Furthermore, it's also worth mentioning that not all the provinces agree with this approach.
	In fact, prior to invoking the Emergencies Act, Justin Trudeau held a meeting with the leaders of Canada's different provinces, and afterwards, the premiers of Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, as well as Saskatchewan, they all came out in opposition to Trudeau's decision.
	Here's in fact what those respective premiers said.
	And by the way, just for your reference, a premier of a province in Canada is equivalent to a governor of a state here in America.
	And here's what they said.
	In Alberta, the premier said, We have the legal powers that we need.
	We have the operational resources that we need to enforce.
	And I think at this point, for the federal government to reach in over top of us without offering anything in particular would frankly be unhelpful.
	I'm concerned that there is a certain kind of person that if the federal government proceeds with this, who will be further inflamed, and that could lead to prolongation of some of these protests.
	Then in Manitoba, the premier said this, quote, In my view, the sweeping effects and signals associated with the never-before-used Emergencies Act are not constructive here in Manitoba, where caution must be taken against overreach and unintended negative consequences.
	I am not currently satisfied the Emergencies Act should be applied in Manitoba.
	Winnipeg's situation is dramatically different from the one in Ottawa.
	Then over in Saskatchewan, the premier added this.
	And then lastly, the premier of Quebec said this.
	I was very clear.
	We do not want a federal state of emergency on the territory of Quebec.
	Now, what's interesting to note here is that while these four provinces rejected the Emergencies Act, Mr.
	Doug Ford, who is the Premier of Ontario, which is not only the most populous province in Canada, but it's also where the capital city of Ottawa is located, well, he publicly endorsed it.
	However, while he supported Justin Trudeau's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act, he simultaneously announced that his province is ending the COVID mandates in his province, including the vaccine passport system.
	Here's what he said.
	Effective March the 1st, we intend to eliminate capacity limits in all indoor public settings.
	At the same time, and at the recommendation of Dr. Moore, we will lift proof of vaccination requirements for all settings.
	And with that change that he announced over in Ontario, it makes it the seventh province which has announced an end to their COVID mandates since the start of the trucker convoy.
	Now, the protesters themselves, they seem to be fairly committed to riding out the storm and facing whatever challenges come their way from the federal government.
	Here's in fact what one of the protesters told the Daily Mail newspaper.
	It's pretty sad now that the government can shut down the economy for two years and small businesses completely lose their livelihoods, but the second we start affecting the government and the big businesses and big corporations is when they put their foot down and when they start having issues.
	It's freezing out here, but we've got to deal with it if we want any change.
	This is not over.
	This will not be over till we get our rights and our freedoms back here.
	And so we will just have to wait and see how all this plays out, which naturally will have reverberations well beyond the borders of Canada, given the fact that similar protests are now being planned around the entire world.
	And then lastly, in ending this segment, I would like to show you a relatively rare clip of Justin Trudeau from a few years ago, wherein he reveals what his favorite country is and why.
	Take a look.
	...with Sun TV watching for any slip.
	He was asked which country he most admired and referred to China.
	There's a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say, we need to go green as fast as we need to start investing in solar.
	I mean, there is a flexibility that I know Stephen Harper must dream about of having a dictatorship that he could do everything he wanted that I find quite interesting.
	If you'd like to read more about all the developments that we discussed with the Trocker Convoy, as well as everything that we discussed in regard to the Emergencies Act, well, I'll throw all those links into the description box below this video for you to check out, and all I ask in return is that you take a super quick moment to smash, smash, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
	And now, let's move on over and discuss how America's Immigration Agency has just changed their mission statement to no longer include anything regarding upholding America's immigration laws.
	What happened was...
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	And now, Roman in the studio, back to you.
	And now let's move on over and talk about immigration.
	About five days ago, a major government agency, specifically the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency, they made a rather, you can say, significant change to their official mission statement.
	And the reason that this is critical is because it reflects the new priorities of America's immigration system.
	And so, in order to unpack what this change actually means, let's look at the old mission statement and compare it to the new one.
	And so, under the previous mission statement, I'll put it up on screen, the U.S. Immigration Agency was described as, Okay, so that was the old statement.
	So now let's compare that to the new statement which was just updated by the Biden administration.
	Here it is up on screen.
	And so notice something critical there.
	In that updated mission statement, Nowhere is there a mention of the nation's immigration laws, anything about protecting Americans, and or securing the homeland.
	All those elements were removed.
	And just for your reference, by the way, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency sits underneath the Department of Homeland Security.
	It has about 19,000 employees, and this is the agency which is supposed to be overseeing the illegal immigration into the United States.
	And the current director of this particular agency, Ms.
	Urge Doe, who, by the way, was an outspoken critic of President Trump, and she welcomed this change in mission statements.
	Saying that a quote reflects the inclusive character of both our country and this agency.
	And she added that the United States is and will remain a welcoming nation that embraces people from across the world who seek family reunification, employment or professional opportunities and humanitarian protection.
	Now, on the flip side, however, Mr.
	Ken Cuccinelli, who was the previous director of this immigration agency under President Trump, and he offered what you can call an opposing view.
	In an email that he sent to us here at the Epoch Times, here's what he said regarding this change in language.
	When we've got an invasion at the border, this is what the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency chooses to spend their time on.
	This is just another example of left-wing busybodies shirking their duty to Americans and not protecting our border.
	And likewise, Senator Jim Risch, who's a Republican from Idaho, he offered some, you can say, choice words regarding this change.
	Here's what he wrote on Twitter.
	With this move, the Biden administration is signifying that lawful immigration, protecting Americans, and securing our homeland are no longer its priorities.
	Now, it is worth noting that this shift in language is not an outlier, but instead it seems to be just the latest in a trend of such changes that we've been seeing under the Biden administration.
	In fact, just last year, top officials within the administration, they ordered all immigration agencies within the U.S. to stop using certain terms in order to be, what they described, more inclusive.
	And so, back in February of last year, in February of 2021, Joe Biden signed an executive memo ordering all immigration agencies within the entire country, including ICE, Border Patrol, as well as this U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency, to change their language.
	And to give you an example of what he actually meant by that, well, instead of using the terms that they've been using, such as illegal alien or undocumented alien, officials have now been referring to them as undocumented non-citizens, undocumented individuals, or simply as migrants.
	Now, as to how this change in language has actually solved the problem of illegal immigration, well, that is not exactly clear.
	However, here was how the acting director of Border Patrol explained it when this change was made, again, back in February.
	Quote, We enforce our nation's laws while also maintaining the dignity of every individual with whom we interact.
	The words we use matter and will serve to further confer that dignity to those in our custody.
	However, regardless of what the federal government refers to them as, the number of foreign people who are illegally crossing into the United States has increased dramatically over the past year.
	In fact, it actually broke an all-time record in the year 2021.
	Here's a graph.
	And notice how it shot up last year to all-time new highs.
	And along with the general number of border crossings shooting up, according to Mr.
	Rodney Scott, who is a former U.S. Border Patrol chief, he said that this poses a serious threat to America's national security.
	Here's, in fact, a short clip of an interview between him and The Capitol Report, which is a phenomenal show on our sister media, MTD. And the cartels are using those large numbers of illegal aliens coming across the border, not just to make money on the illegal alien smuggling, but to create controllable gaps in border security.
	They simply overwhelm agents with those massive numbers.
	And that creates other areas where there's no law enforcement at all.
	And that's where they're bringing the narcotics, the criminal aliens, the people that want to avoid arrest for whatever reason.
	And they're just pouring across that will.
	This is a crisis and it is real.
	But in the last few years, we've seen arrests from countries other than Mexico surpass the traditional arrests from Mexico.
	Before I retired last August, we'd arrested people from 150 different countries from around the world, to include many of those that sponsor or are known to sponsor and support terrorism.
	You just can't have an open border like that and then try to fool yourself into thinking we have any level of safety or security.
	It's not just about economic migrants.
	It's a real threat to the United States.
	If you'd like to learn more about what's happening over at the U.S. southern border or about the recent changes in mission statement over at that citizenship agency, I'll throw all those links into the description box below this video for you to check out.
	And again, all I ask in return is that if you haven't already, take a quick moment to smash, smash, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
	And now lastly, since you completed this episode of Facts Matter, I would highly recommend that you go on over to Epic TV and check out a phenomenal episode of Wide Angle where Brandon sat down with a China expert and they discussed how a firm that's linked to the Chinese military is both gathering America's DNA, but also providing COVID test kits.
	Here's the trailer.
	We basically know the motivations of the Chinese Communist Party.
	They haven't Really kept it secret.
	They have this strategy of unrestricted warfare.
	Specifically, it was a fertility clinic which was located within reasonable driving distance of six American military bases.
	So the idea was probably the CCP wants to own this fertility clinic and then all the soldiers, you know, they're married and whatever, they're coming there for fertility or for paternity testing and things like that.
	So they want to collect the DNA of America's soldiers.
	What purpose specifically would they have in mind, do you think, for that?
	If you want to check out that awesome episode, as well as all the other phenomenal content over on Epic TV, the link tool will be right there at the very top of the description box.
	I hope you're clicking it.
	I hope you check it out.
	I hope you subscribe.
	And I hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this beautiful, beautiful world through honest journalism that is based in truth and tradition.
	Now, lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
	Subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already in order to get this type of honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while YouTube still allows it.
	Also, consider hitting that notification bell so you can actually be notified of any new videos as we release them.
	And lastly, if you happen to have a Telegram account, consider following us at FactsMatter underscore Roman.
	We'll publish the links to all of our videos there, so if anything ever does happen here on YouTube, you can always find us on Telegram.
	And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from The Epoch Times.

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