GoFundMe Seizes $10 Million of Trucker Protest Fundraising,

Nova Scotia government “prohibits” all residents from donating or participating in freedom convoy through emergency order

Will Give to Charities Instead

By Omid Ghoreishi, EPOCH TIMES

GoFundMe says it won’t be giving the C$10 million ($8 million USD) raised to support the truckers protesting COVID-19 mandates to the organizers anymore, saying it will instead work with the organizers to send the funds to “established charities verified by GoFundMe.”

“To ensure GoFundMe remains a trusted platform, we work with local authorities to ensure we have a detailed, factual understanding of events taking place on the ground,” the fundraising platform said in a statement on Feb. 4.

“Following a review of relevant facts and multiple discussions with local law enforcement and city officials, this fundraiser is now in violation of our Terms of Service (Term 8, which prohibits the promotion of violence and harassment) and has been removed from the platform.”

GoFundMe added that it has “evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.”

John Carpay, president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) which is providing legal representation for the organizers, told The Epoch Times that the linking of protesters to violent or unlawful activity is unfounded.

“I would like to see what evidence there is,” Carpay said. “That’s political spin.”

Carpay said the organizers have maintained that the protests are peaceful.

“It’s a constitutional freedom to protest peacefully,” Carpay said.

He also said that it’s his understanding from people on the ground that people can move freely in Ottawa, and for example in a recent case an emergency vehicle was able to “rapidly race through the streets because the trucks were neatly parked off to the side.”

“They’re not obstructing the daily lives of people in Ottawa, and they’re committed to peace and non-violence,” he said.

The Epoch Times reached out to GoFundMe for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

GoFundMe had earlier put a freeze in withdrawal of the funds as it undertook a review “to ensure it complies with our terms of service and applicable laws and regulations.”

Keith Wilson, a lawyer from JCCF representing the organizers, had said earlier at a Feb. 3 press conference that GoFundMe has been “bombarded with an orchestrated social media and other campaigns to try and shut [the fundraiser] down.”

Ottawa police have made a few arrests while the protesters remain in Ottawa. On Feb. 1, the Ottawa Police Service announced that it had charged one man with mischief under $5,000 and another man with carrying a weapon to a meeting. Police charged another man from Quebec while in Ottawa on Feb. 2 in relation to “threats and comments made on social media.” Police say there have been no injuries or riots during the protests.

“I have it on very reliable information that people from the movement were not associated, and that offences related to property damage, and just an assault this morning, committed by agitators were witnessed and reported by a trucker and one of our volunteer security personnel, which was reported to the police and handled by the Ottawa Police Service,” said Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who worked as a sniper to protect the prime minister and is now helping the protest organizers, at the Feb. 3 press conference.

GoFundMe had earlier allowed withdrawal of C$1 million by the organizers to be used for expenses such as fuel and food for the protesters. The fundraising platform said in its Feb. 4 statement that donors may submit a request for a full refund of their donation until Feb. 19.

The trucker convoy demonstration initially started as a protest against the federal government’s requirement for truck drivers crossing the U.S.-Canada border to have COVID-19 vaccination, but became a large movement as many across Canada opposing various COVID-19 mandates and restrictions joined the protest.

The convoy converged in Ottawa on Jan. 29, and many protesters have remained in the city, parking their trucks and vehicles by Parliament Hill.

The protesters say they will remain in the nation’s capital until the government removes COVID-19 mandates.

The organizers have now set up an alternate donation site on GiveSendGo, which they say will ensure the money gets to the protesters. The donation site had raised over $175,000 in just a few hours after its creation.

Omid Ghoreishi is an Epoch Times reporter based in Toronto.

February 5, 2022 | 14 Comments »

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14 Comments / 14 Comments

  1. JUST IN – Canada: Alberta to scrap vaccine passport program at midnight tonight, Premier Jason Kenney announces.

    @disclosetv

    That was a definite blink.

  2. Powerful condemnation of Trudeau by Indian Ambassador Depak Vohra:

    Let me begin by saying that the Canadian prime minister who tried to advise us on how to deal with the farmer’s protests last year and swore that Canada will be there to defend the rights of peaceful protest has run away from the truckers and others even as we speak on the 30th of january 2022.

    They are rallying against vaccine mandates inflation supply chain disruptions etc so the fellow who was trying to give us advice has actually gone into hiding. He has betrayed their trust. The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies, it comes from those who have faith in. Some of the most poisonous people come disguised as friends and family. My motto has always been to protect the oppressed even if he is my enemy, but i will never forgive the traitor – even if he is my friend.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCj9fVPiyK4
    Well said and well deserved comments.

  3. @Reader

    The way they handled it in the US 90 years ago – has anything changed?

    YES! This protest, if ended today, and it is not ending today, has had enormous victories. I find the comparison to the Bonus Expeditionary Force quite tangential. Several prominent politicians have come out to support the views espoused by the Truckers. Millions of dollars have been crowd sourced to demonstrate the popular support of the Truckers. Several provinces have broken ranks with Treudeau and are making moves to end their Covid policies of represssion. This is all VERY different from the lack of any success gained by the Bonus Expeditionary Force. The BEF was dispersed with the use of the Army – another significant digression from your analogy. The BEF was requesting funds which had been earned but were legally not owed to them at the time they were being demanded to be paid. The current issue is not one of financial recompense but a very basic dispute of fundamental rights of liberty, another discrepancy. I really don’t see much to support your comparison beyond the presence of a large group who are protesting at a national capital.

  5. Truckers have a point because they want their freedom back.

    They naively thought that they live in a free country, and if they behave according to the constitution, their “freely and democratically elected” government will respond in kind.

    Now they are learning what country they really live in and how much freedom they have in reality.

  6. The PTB are stupid.

    They lost their brakes, and they may end up with a revolution on their hands which may get really violent.

    Both the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution started with peaceful protests which eventually degenerated into the rule of terror because the people’s grievances either were ignored or violently rejected in the beginning.

  8. Becker News
    UPDATE.?

    Situation is fluid as Ottawa Police are reportedly disrupting fuel deliveries and backing off of arrests in the presence of journalists on the scene.

    Becker News has contacted the Ottawa Police and will post any response as forthcoming.

    Prior reports have been updated accordingly with up-to-the-minute information.

  10. Lockdowns and masks never worked. They were always based on non-science science, which faith based. None of this is new. These actions have actually helped spread the virus and should be dropped immediately.

  11. Truckers have a point because Lock downs do NOT work.

    Johns Hopkins study reignites COVID lockdown debate
    ‘They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence and undermining liberal democracy,’ the report noted.

    A recent controversial Johns Hopkins meta-analysis reignites a discussion about the adverse consequences of lockdowns after finding they had no significant mortality benefit during the first wave of the 2020 pandemic in the United States and Europe, according to a recent report.

    “We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality,” said the authors of the study, which is not peer-reviewed and reflects the authors’ views, not necessarily those of the university.

    The study authors, however, did find closing nonessential businesses reduced COVID-19 mortality by 10.6%, which is likely most related to the closure of bars.

    ‘SHOULD BE REJECTED OUT OF HAND’: LOCKDOWNS ONLY REDUCED COVID DEATH RATE BY .2%, STUDY FINDS

    “Our study shows the benefits [of lockdowns] — in terms of fewer deaths — are questionable and small,” Jonas Herby, special advisor at the Center for Political Studies in Copenhagen, Denmark, told Fox News. Herby’s research focuses on law and economics, and he is a co-author of the study.

    The meta-analysis – a survey or study of previous studies – which Herby wrote along with two other prominent economists, noted lockdowns have had “devastating effects” as society weathers the unintended consequences.

    “They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence and undermining liberal democracy,” the report noted.