As the spillover from Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” back in February 2022 resulted in gridlocked trade on the border with the US, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was reportedly pressured by US President Joe Biden to stop the protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The White House was “very, very, very worried” at the time that "all of their northeastern car plants will shut down" unless the convoy was stopped within 12 hours, according to media-cited testimony and documents from the public inquiry into the Canadian government’s decision to resort to emergency powers to end the truckers’ blockades.
After conferring with the US president’s chief economic advisor, Brian Deese, and being apprised of Washington’s fears that a potential blockade could cost around $2.9 billion in trade disruption, Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is said to have emailed staff on the need to resolve the issue on February 10.
“I could see for the first time this amber light flashing,” Freeland was cited as telling the Public Order Emergency Commission.
Canada's finance minister revealed at the inquiry that she was profoundly concerned that Ottawa's failure to act would result in “long-term and possibly irreparable harm to our trading relationship with the United States.”
At the inquiry, the minister also revealed that Deese, the director of the US National Economic Council, reiterated that concerns stemmed from the "integrated nature" of the US-Canadian cross-border economy. It was during that phone call ostensibly on February 10 that Freeland urged Deese to set up a call between Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau. Deese, she subsequently emailed staff, had vowed he would “try to make it happen.”
Judging by the report, Brian Deese and the Canadian PM's chief of staff, Brian Clow, did arrange such a link-up between POTUS and Justin Trudeau on February 11. In the subsequent phone call, Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau, according to cited texts between Clow and Freeland, weighed in on the issues involved, such as "money, people and political/media support" of the convoy by US media personalities like Fox News' Tucker Carlson. Joe Biden, for his part, is said to have voiced fears of a rumored different convoy purportedly intending to cause disruption in Washington and bring chaos to the Super Bowl in Inglewood, California. Biden underscored in the call that the convoy was becoming a "shared problem," according to the report.
Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary, is also described as conversing with his Canadian counterpart, Omar Alghabra, to urge the need to come up with a "plan to resolve” the gridlock.
Chrystia Freeland was allegedly further pressured to resolve the disruptions caused by the convoy by her own country's top bankers. At a meeting said to have taken place on February 13, the minister was warned by Alan Kestenbaum, CEO of the steel company Stelco, that the blockade was "really impacting us badly."
"I fear that even worse, the long term consequences of shutting down auto plants because of lack of Canadian parts, will only convince the auto companies to 'on shore' even more and relocate supplies (and our customers) to the USA," Kestenbaum was cited as saying.
According to the report, three days after the telephone conversation between Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau, Canada's PM invoked the country's Emergencies Act, adopted in 1988, on February 14 for the first time in Canada’s history. It froze bank accounts, prohibited any travel to the protests, and compelled the vehicles to be towed away from the blockade. Trudeau cited "threats to Canada's economic security resulting from the impacts of blockades of critical infrastructure, including trade corridors and international border crossings.”
However, Canada’s Emergencies Act includes the provision that its use must trigger an inquiry within 60 days of the declaration. Justin Trudeau is set to testify in Ottawa on Friday regarding his decision to use the emergency powers.