Tausi Insider

Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland holds a news conference on the second day of the Liberal cabinet retreat in Ottawa on Sept. 15, 2020. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press When Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland called the chief executive officers of Canada’s Big Six banks on the Sunday in February before her government invoked the Emergencies Act, CEOs stressed that the tools they had to help choke off money pouring in to support the convoy protests were limited. At that moment, banks needed court orders to freeze funds, the CEOs said, which are slow to be granted. To give banks the power to freeze funds faster, the government needed to sanction the protesters under the same anti-financial-crime laws it uses for terrorists, three CEOs said. They also urged the government to plug gaps in systems for monitoring transactions by bringing in a broader range of payments providers under stricter regulations. Accounts of at least three calls Ms. Freeland held with bank CEOs over an ...

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks at a news conference in Ottawa, on Nov. 3. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has lots of reasons to be losing sleep. Soaring living costs have Canadians lined up at food banks. The federal Liberals are anticipating a possible recession. And Freeland is personally connected with people living all across war-torn Ukraine. But in April, the finance minister said there was another looming problem on her mind. “If you were to ask what keeps me up at night, I’d say, ‘China’s zero-COVID approach and the very severe lockouts we’re seeing right now,’” Freeland said at an event held by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. If Beijing’s tough COVID-19 rules and factory shutdowns had her the most concerned, it was because these, more than anything else, were sure to wreak havoc on the supply chains Canada relies on to keep its economy running. In July, Canada dodged what was potentially an even bigger blow when the U.S. broade...