The CEO of one of Canada’s ‘big five’ banks, Scotiabank, sent a secret email to one of the leaders of the Freedom convoy apologizing for the bank freezing their funds.
An email from the office of the CEO of Scotiabank Brian J. Porter asked Freedom Convoy spokesperson Benjamin Dichter to, “Please accept our sincere apologies for the frustration and inconvenience this situation may have caused and thank you for your patience while we prepared our response.”
The letter then seemed to place the blame for the freeze firmly at the feet of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, declaring “We can confirm that financial institutions acted quickly to unfreeze accounts after the RCMP notified us that it believes that individuals and entities previously identified are no longer engaged in conduct or activities prohibited under the Emergency Measures Regulations.”
Dichter didn’t seem to have any issues accepting the apology, suggesting that the banks weren’t behind the freeze. “I don’t believe the banks went out of their way to target clients,” Dichter said. “I believe It came from somewhere else. They didn’t do it on their own accord.”
Dichter did, however, express surprise at being sent the letter at all. He said that he believed it was probably out of fear that the banks didn’t want to lose customers.
“My interpretation of their response is, “we do not want to do this. As soon as they allowed us to, give you access to your account, we did so immediately. It wasn’t our choice,” Dichter said.
Banks across Canada were forced to freeze the funds of participants in the Freedom Convoy after the Trudeau government imposed the Emergencies Act in response to the protests on February 14th of this year.
Both the RCMP and Ottawa Police Force have contradicted the federal government’s claims that they requested the Emergency Act be instituted to break up the convoy after it began blocking trade on the US-Canada border.
The Convoy formed after Trudeau’s government introduced very strict pandemic policies that required CV testing and quarantine every time they crossed the border. Many truckers made the trip several times per week, and these new restrictions made their routes untenable.
Justin Trudeau has faced serious backlash to his liberal policies, with the Freedom Convoy being the most notable. He is not trying to freeze handgun ownership in his country, Do you think there will be a similar backlash to last time?
