[totony]

>Why not make the protests less liveable?

Protesting during multiple weeks in winter is already unliveable. I live in Canada and would probably not do that unless the issue is life-or-death. Using extra-judicial means to quell opponents is not what our government should be doing, be it by freezing assets, preventing exchange of goods or other. One of the basis of modern democracy is due process and executive/legislative separation.

[smnrchrds]

It wouldn't have made a difference if the Emergencies Act was not invoked. There is a court order to freeze assets which does not rely on the Act, just existing laws. Even without the act and by the order of the judiciary, the funds would have been frozen.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-judge-orders-up-to-20-mil...

[totony]

That's a specific order, to a specifics individuals. Plus, this is a legal matter and can have a back-and-forth in court. The emergency act allows freezing assets of anyone without a judge having its say. The scale is not the same.

[unfocussed_mike]

(Again -- what's with the downvotes on your comment? You have a legitimate opinion; I don't understand why it was downvoted when it didn't even needlessly snark at Joe Rogan like mine)

All protests ultimately end when the protesters allow themselves to be arrested or come to an agreement with the state or police for a way to protest over the long term that is present but less disruptive. Usually the process of protest involves some acceptance that the police are going to make your lives a little difficult; it's the nature of the beast.

But this is at a more significant scale, because each invididual protestor has a seriously outsize impact.

What happens to civil society if a bunch of truckers who believe a bunch of Qanon nonsense (and that is largely what is at work here -- not legitimate belief but conspiracy theories) can repeat this, over and over again, because of access to finance from outside (and even from abroad)?

I personally do not think that portable roadblocks on the basis of fringe belief funded by foreign state and non-state actors, going unchallenged, is something society should just do nothing about.

This isn't a one-off. Governments need to figure out how to allow this kind of protest for short periods but not tolerate for long periods, because road blockades have real consequences.

(As it goes, in the UK, it's the government that blocks roads with long tailbacks of lorries for purely partisan reasons)