Emergencies Act ropes portfolio managers into blockade crackdown

The scope of financial entities that are being roped into the government's Emergencies Act measures to choke off funding to blockade participants extends well beyond the banks and crowdfunding platforms that Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland focused on Monday.

The scope of financial entities that are being roped into the government's Emergencies Act measures to choke off funding to blockade participants extends well beyond the banks and crowdfunding platforms that Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland focused on Monday.

In detailed Emergencies Act regulations published late Tuesday in the Canada Gazette, the government listed more than a dozen financial entitities that are being told they "must determine on a continuing basis whether they are in possession or control of property that is owned, held or controlled by or on behalf" of anyone who is participating in prohibited actions under the Act.

Included in that list of financial entitities are those who "engage in the business of dealing in securities or to provide portfolio management or investment counselling services."

Under the regulations, the entities are being directed to inform the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or the Canadian Security Intelligence Service "without delay" if they have exposure to assets that are believed to be intended for use by protesters participating in the blockades and other activities covered by the Act.

The emergency measaures also spell out that the financial entitites that will be sniffing out funding will be provided with immunity from any potential civil litigation as a result of their actions under the Act.