Trudeau Revokes Emergency

So it's known that Prime Minister Trudeau has revoked his declaration of emergency, only a couple of days afer he and other officials strongly implied it would last at least 30 days. The most detailed explanation of the legal background and implications of the declaration I've seen is in the link above.

I've seen little other intelligent commentary, especially for the reasons behind the reversal. The explanations I've seen include:

• The state of emergency needed to be approved by the Canadian senate. Debate there was underway, and it didn't look good. The declration was withdrawn yesterday before the senate voted, and the senate canceled debate without a vote.
• Canadian banks and financial institutions may have been pleading behind scenes not to be put in a position of policing their clients.
• The Mounties were arbitrarily telling Canadian banks to freeze accounts, in at least some cases of people who had donated token amounts to the truckers without being physically present at any protest. This was possibly causing runs on banks -- earlier on Wednesday, it was announced that the Mounties were now "unfreezing" accounts, apparently in response to these reports.
• Some Liberal Party MPs were apparently forced to vote in favor of the declaratrion on February 14 on penalty of being expelled from caucus, but several are known to be skeptical that the declaration was needed.
• Trudeau and the cabinet may have underestimated public opposition to the declaration, especially in the wake of overreaction by Mounties and police in Ottawa, recorded in viral videos, as well as reports of arbitrary freezing of accounts. I have the impression that the situation was quickly changing, and I would speculate that Canadian senators were feeling the heat of constituent concern that the House of Commons hadn't felt the week before.

One thing that isn't completely clear is the status of those already arrested for offenses or who had their trucks confiscated during the ten days of the emergency declaration, and whether investigations of other individuals for activites before or during the declaration will continue. As of Wednesday,

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) announced on Wednesday that it has started an internal investigation over allegations that some OPP officers may have donated to the fundraiser for the anti-Wuhan coronavirus restriction Freedom Convoy protests.

The officers were allegedly identified as part of a leak of hacked fundraiser data from the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo by the left-leaning Toronto Star newspaper published this week.

OPP spokesperson Bill Dickson stated that the OPP was aware of the allegations and told broadcaster CBC that officers “appear to have made donations that have gone toward the unlawful protest in Ottawa.”

“The matter has been brought to the attention of OPP Command, and the OPP Professional Standards Unit has launched an internal conduct investigation into this matter,” Dickson told the CBC in an email.

In another case,

The director of communications in the Ontario ministry responsible for enforcing the law is out of a job after she was tied to a $100 donation supporting the convoy blockading Ottawa streets.

Marion Isabeau-Ringuette is among several government staffers and associates under scrutiny after their names or identifying information were found in a pair of leaks of some 100,000 donations to American crowdfunding website GiveSendGo.

“For the communications director to be financially supporting an unlawful, illegal occupation is definitely concerning,” said NDP MPP Catherine Fife.

In the US, this individual would have quite the basis for both a wrongful termination suit and a defamation suit.

The impression I have is that the overreaction to the Ottawa protest and the emergency declaration have caused considerable damage to Canadian expectations that their institutions will protect their basic legal rights, that their police, especially the Mounties, behave professionally, and that the financial system can be trusted to handle their money. At least the Mounties are aware of the problem:

The RCMP is aware of the material circulating on social media pertaining to a chat group that includes some of its members, and we can confirm that we are looking into the matter. This material is not representative of those who have committed themselves to serving Canadians with integrity and professionalism.

. . . All members of the RCMP know that, whether on or off duty, they have a responsibility to hold themselves to the highest professional standards and are subject to the Code of Conduct of the RCMP at all times. This includes acting with integrity, fairness, and impartiality, and avoiding any potential conflicts between their professional responsibilities and private interests.

I don't think this is over.

Meanwhile, US truckers, inspired by the Canadian example, are on their way to Washington.