Factbox: Canada's emergency act, used only once in peacetime, would bolster federal powers

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday he was closely examining whether to invoke the rarely used 1988 Emergencies Act, which would allow Ottawa to override the provinces and restrict the movement of people and goods.

The legislation, previously known as the War Measures Act, has been used only three times in Canadian history: during the two world wars and in 1970 by Trudeau's father, the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, after militant Quebec separatists kidnapped a British diplomat and a provincial Cabinet minister.