PM Trudeau declares national emergency
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declared a national emergency in response to the ongoing truckers’ protests against various Covid-19 related measures including vaccine mandates.
Trudeau made the announcement invoking the Emergency Act, which was enacted in 1988, and never used before in the country’s history as the agitation entered its 18th day.
“We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue,” he said in Ottawa. The emergency powers came into immediate effect and will last for 30 days.
Among the measures that will be applied will be stronger tools for law enforcement to disperse gatherings of protestors including at major border trade routes connecting Canada to the US.
In addition, the act will allow the government to go after crowdfunding platforms and payment processors that have been used by the Freedom Convoy 2022 to fund their protest, and compel financial institutions to freeze accounts of individuals or organisations linked to the agitation.
US unveils action plan to tackle Covid-19 issues
Acknowledging that the world is “well below” the World Health Organization (WHO)’s target of vaccinating 70% of people in every country by September 2022, the US has unveiled a new six-point global action plan to tackle the “biggest barriers left” in the battle against the pandemic.
The plan, announced by US secretary of state Antony J Blinken, involves six lines of effort.
This includes first, increasing access to vaccines and addressing last mile delivery issues; two, strengthening the supply chain for vaccines and other critical supplies such as syringes, test kits and treatments; three, addressing information gaps that lead to low confidence in vaccines by tailoring messages for local audiences and pushing back against disinformation; four, providing more support to health care workers; five, making it easier to access treatments and therapeutics; and six, strengthening global health security for the next emergency by ensuring sustainable financing for pandemic preparedness and response.