Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland defended the financial freezings saying: 'These measures were put in place to disrupt illegal activity in Canada.' She is pictured during a news conference Monday.
'They started [Monday] to unfreeze accounts,' Isabelle Jacques, a senior official in Canada's finance department, told lawmakers Tuesday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The move came after liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government froze bank accounts and other assets during what leaders declared an 'emergency period' in Ottawa.
Among those targeted was a single mom on a minimum wage job who donated just $50, according to one local Conservative MP, sparking outrage over what critics of Trudeau claimed was authoritarian behavior. Thousands of protesters flooded the streets outside Parliament Hill and blockades that shut down border crossings into the U.S.
Trudeau, responding to the protest, invoked never-before-used emergency powers authorizes the Canadian government to utilize broad powers and tools to respond to crises. The Emergencies Act also allowed police to lock bank accounts belonging to individuals suspected of funding the Freedom Convoy without having to first obtain a court order.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland defended the financial freezings Monday saying: 'These measures were put in place to disrupt illegal activity in Canada.'
'We were very clear that we would be following the money, that we would be using financial tools to disrupt illegal blockades and occupations. The focus absolutely has been on leaders and on the vehicles that were such an important part of the illegal blockades and occupations.'
She told protesters the 'way to get your account unfrozen is to stop being part of the blockade and occupation.'
Comment: The single mother mentioned above wasn't part of the blockade and occupation. Yet her bank account, along with hundreds of others, was frozen. What was her recourse?
The Freedom Convoy demonstrations initially focused on Canada's vaccine requirement for truckers entering the country, but morphed into a wider protest against the country's highly restrictive Covid precautions and Trudeau's faux-liberal government.
Ottawa protesters are largely gone from the Parliament Hill area after having been chased away by officers sporting riot gear in what was the biggest police operation in Canada's history.
Police reportedly ordered a freeze on more than 206 bank accounts, including one valued at $3.8million Canadian ($3million USD).
Some individuals and organizations reported having multiple accounts impacted.
Police also ceased transactions involving 253 cryptocurrency addresses.
Freedom Convoy organizers issued a statement on social media arguing the freezing of bank accounts was 'financial warfare' and left many citizens in shock.
'This is already backfiring. The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, keeps expanding the list of political opponents whom he is targeting with financial sanctions. In response, Canadians are pulling their money out of the banks and realizing the value of cryptocurrency,' the organizers wrote.
'This, in the short-term, is very bad for the banks and our national economy. The more severe implication, however, is that by using the Emergencies Act as financial warfare, it will sow mistrust in both the banking system and the government and the repercussions will be felt for years to come.'
The statement continued: 'Trudeau is tearing the fabric of our nation like never before, and the evidence is stacked against him. Our hearts go out to each and every innocent, freedom-loving Canadian that has fallen victim to this government's illegal, impulsive and tyrannical overreach.'
Convoy organizers did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment about officials ordering banks to unlock accounts.
Trudeau's government faced scrutiny for the unprecedented move to isolate Canadian citizens from their finances.
'Just to be clear, a financial contribution either through a crowdsourced platform or directly, could result in their bank account being frozen?' Conservative MP Philip Lawrence asked Jacques on Tuesday.
According to the National Post, she replied: 'Yes.'
Phillips also questioned whether or not an individuals had to be actively participating in the Ottawa protest or blockades to be impacted by the freeze, to which Jacques answered: 'No, not themselves. It could be indirectly'
The finance official also noted that such action would only be taken on donations that were made after the February 15 emergency declaration.
She also argued police stopped freezing accounts on Monday after police cleared the downtown area.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) - which was under fire after leaked text messages between a group of officers showed the law enforcement agents apparently gloating at brutal force used against protesters - denied providing names of convoy donors to financial institutions.
The organization claimed it provided banks with a list of people 'who were influencers in the illegal protest in Ottawa,' as well as truckers who refused to leave the area when ordered.
'We had to take extreme measures to freeze the accounts to basically discourage people to fund illegal activities,' Jacques explained.
'It's not that the federal government thought that there was no other venues to freeze the accounts in view of the current illegal blockades that were ongoing.'
Lawrence hit back, saying: 'The de-banking provisions are so broad, that literally a clerk at a Kwik-E-Mart who sold a propane canister to a protester could have his accounts frozen.'
'When you freeze someone's bank account, you're effectively removing them from society.'
Attorney Keith Wilson, who represented several convoy organizers during the protest, said he has nine clients with alleged frozen accounts or cancelled insurance policies.
'None of them are charged with any offenses,' Wilson tweeted Monday.
'Most had no trucks in Ottawa or elsewhere. The Trudeau government is destroying these Canadians because they spoke out.'
The lawyer did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
Protesters of the self-styled Freedom Convoy - who vowed never to give up their fight - are largely gone after hundreds of police descended into the protest zone in Ottawa on Friday and began arresting demonstrators.
Ottawa police chief Steve Bell said the Emergencies Act helped bring an end to the 'occupation.'
At least 196 people had been arrested as of Monday and 115 vehicles had been towed, police said, while other trucks and vehicles left the protest zone after being warned starting Friday.
Heavily-armed riot cops used pepper spray, while mounted police and armored vehicles were also brought in to help begin clearing the downtown area, which had been paralyzed by a three-week blockade over the truckers' Covid jab protest.
Several clips have shown peaceful protesters being beaten into submission, including a truck driver who claims he was attacked after having given himself up to authorities. Other footage shows a woman, who appeared to be using a mobility scooter, being trampled by mounted police in Ottawa on Friday.
For almost a week the busiest U.S.-Canada border crossing, the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, was blocked. The crossing sees more than 25 percent of the trade between the two countries.
Trudeau said people in Ottawa were harassed for weeks and said billions of dollars in trade were stalled by the border blockades, putting people's jobs at risk.
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