The directive on how to apply the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act after it ordered financial institutions to freeze Freedom Convoy supporters’ accounts was ill-defined and left credit unions “scrambling,” a Commons committee heard on March 17. On a few occasions, customers also withdrew millions to avoid the punitive measure. Martha Durdin, president and CEO of the Canadian Credit Union Association (CCUA), testified before the Standing Committee on Finance as part of its inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act that suppressed the Freedom Convoy protest movement. “We were scrambling when the act was announced to find out if we were part of it, if it applied to credit unions, and it took us a little while to be able to get that information from the government,” said Durdin, who noted that the “big six” Canadian banks were given a heads up but credit unions were not. …