Hon. Clément Gignac: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

When the Minister of Finance issued the economic measures order, she created a significant and potentially dangerous precedent for allowing political authorities and law enforcement to order financial institutions to freeze bank accounts and suspend or cancel insurance policies, without first requiring a court order.

According to my sources, the so-called black list sent to financial institutions went from 15 or so names on Friday to more than 60, including some business owners.

There appears to be considerable uncertainty about the parameters used by authorities to come up with this list and, most importantly, there are no guidelines for financial institutions regarding the conditions to “unfreeze” these bank accounts.

Leader, in a democratic society like ours, where we do not want our actions to be arbitrary, can you assure this chamber that the offending truckers and protesters who have already left Ottawa and returned to their jobs will soon have access to their bank accounts, until their case is heard in court or they are convicted?