Evidence of meeting #18 for Declaration of Emergency in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was list.
A video is available from Parliament.
7:05 p.m.
Bloc
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Thank you very much.
I want to begin with the notion that $1 million invested in direct action that had reports of criminality and disruption is no small amount of money. I want to contextualize it by stating right now—you may or may not know this, Ms. Wilford—that there is an ongoing investigation into foreign interference that I think is about a quarter of a million dollars for an entire election.
I've been involved in a lot of direct action, and I have never been in a situation where I had $1 million dropped in my lap, let alone 10, so I want to get a better understanding of that money. When you receive donations, how do you verify the residence?
7:05 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
We don't verify the resident as the donations are coming in. We can tell from the credit card that's used and the zip code that's used where they come from. In this case, some diligence was done that was more unusual than we do on a normal campaign, just given the—
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Can you expand on that a little bit? What extended diligence did you do?
7:05 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
We worked with our payment processors to really look into not just the credit card location and where it was coming from, but also things like IP addresses and beyond.
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Was there ever any use of GoFundMe for any of the January 6 actions that happened in Washington?
7:05 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
There were some campaigns related to it that were removed from the platform.
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
They were removed from the platform.
Was there also foreign money coming in? Was there money coming from outside the country into the January 6 actions?
7:05 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
I don't know any of the specifics of the funding of those campaigns.
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Okay.
I want to just state for the record again, because I know earlier on you had some challenges with the information we requested, that you are the in-house general counsel. Is that correct?
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Why was it that the president, Mr. Benitez, didn't avail himself of joining us tonight?
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Okay.
Was there anybody else with a technical background who might have been able to support you in your testimony today?
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Starting on January 28, you became aware of the media reports describing the acts of harassment and violence. Why did you wait until February 2 to suspend the campaign?
7:05 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
We were doing our diligence. We were trying to work with the campaign organizer. We were monitoring it. We were talking to local authorities to get credible information and trying to—
7:05 p.m.
NDP
7:05 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
We had a number of people on our team trying to reach the campaign organizer and working with authorities in Ottawa. There were a number of people talking to a number of people, frankly. We were trying to discuss—
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Had our law enforcement agencies apprised you of the situation on the 28th?
7:05 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
We reached out to law enforcement ourselves. We did not speak with anyone there until February 2.
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Thank you very much. That's certainly very helpful.
In your interactions with the Canadian government or law enforcement regarding the events leading up to the declaration, how did this information impact your decision to continue, or not, to host the funding related to the “freedom convoy” on your site?
7:05 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
As I've tried to explain, we were looking at all of the facts and circumstances in a rapidly evolving situation. It was a highly unusual campaign, with things changing very quickly in terms of the people and facts involved.
We were doing our own diligence. We were speaking to individuals on the ground in Ottawa and trying our best to work with the campaign organizer and her team to make sure that if the campaign did remain, it would be within our terms of service.
7:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
In terms of your terms of service, do you have a breakdown of the sources of funding related to the events in question that were processed through your platform?
