Trudeau to invoke emergency powers to end protests; armed group broken up

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to invoke rarely used special measures allowing him to tackle protests that have shut some border crossings and paralyzed downtown Ottawa, sources said on Monday.

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In the Western Canadian province of Alberta on Monday, police broke up an armed group that was prepared to use violence to back a blockade at a border crossing with the United States, authorities said. read more

Trudeau plans to use the 1988 Emergencies Act, which allows the federal government to override the provinces and authorize special temporary measures to ensure security during national emergencies, the sources said. read more

The act has only been used once in peacetime – by Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau – who invoked an earlier version of the act in 1970 after a small militant group of Quebec separatists kidnapped a British diplomat and then abducted a provincial cabinet minister who was killed in captivity.

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