Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office distributed a blacklist of 201 trucking companies that participated in the Freedom Convoy, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. .“Please find attached an Excel sheet detailing which companies whose trucks are participating in Ottawa convoy demonstrations,” said an unidentified staffer in an email distributed from Freeland’s office. .“A total of 45 companies whose trucks are in Ottawa have accessed the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy out of a total of 201 companies whose trucks are publicly known as being in Ottawa.”.Three of the companies with trucks in Ottawa were based in the United States. .The blacklist was distributed in February. Cabinet invoked the Emergencies Act (War Measures Act) to freeze Freedom Convoy supporter bank accounts around the same time. .“Your corporate accounts will be frozen,” said Freeland. .“The insurance on your vehicle will be suspended.”.Freeland said companies should send their semi-trailers home. She said the Canadian economy “needs them to be doing legitimate work, not to be illegally making us all poorer.”.The redacted email does not identify the source of the truckers’s blacklist. RCMP and Ottawa police are known to have distributed lists of suspected Freedom Convoy protesters to banks, insurers, and lobbyists. .Freeland called the Freedom Convoy “unacceptable.” .“What we are facing today is a threat to our democratic institutions, to our economy and to peace, order, and good government in Canada,” she said. .Records revealed in August show Employment and Social Development Canada complained of significant labour shortages in trucking weeks before the Freedom Convoy, which could not afford to lose drivers. .READ MORE: Labour department complained of trucker shortages right before Freedom Convoy.“Key sectors in the economy including the trucking sector continue to face significant workforce challenges,” said a briefing note for Employment and Social Development Canada. .The briefing note said trucking companies were struggling to find workers.
