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.
7:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
Can I just make a suggestion? Thank you for cutting me off.
Maybe it would be an appropriate time to take a little break to give our witness a bit of a break as well. She's been at this for over an hour answering lots of questions, and...have the senators come in so they can continue with their rounds.
7:35 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
I think the general spirit in which we took the departure from our regular time was to allow the meeting to continue in five-minute rounds until such time as they returned.
7:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
I'm trying to be considerate, and indulging the members of this committee to be a little considerate towards our—
7:35 p.m.
NDP
7:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
—witness as well, who will then again be going through quite a few senators, answering questions. She will get a bit of a break.
7:35 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
If there is unanimous consent, certainly we can do that, but I think if there was a general consensus, we would continue until they returned. I would just state that as a chair, if there was an issue with that, we would have benefited from the foresight at that time—for that intervention—to say that one, two rounds are done, that we would stop and allow for that break. But, thanks.
7:35 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I've just received word that the senators can't be here until 8 o'clock, and that's when our witness will be leaving us. We have 20 minutes left, so I don't think we should bother with a break when there's just 20 minutes to go. Some members still have questions.
If the senators get here, I agree that they should be given the floor, but if not, I don't see why we would take a break.
7:35 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
We will continue on with the rounds.
Mr. Brock, you have five minutes. The floor is yours.
7:35 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Just to confirm, Ms. Wilford, February 4, 2022, is the day that GoFundMe suspended the campaign for the reasons you've indicated for the record, for violating the terms of service.
Going back to the CBC misrepresenting to the Canadian public, “On Feb. 10...in a report about the protest convoy, CBC Radio's The World This Hour...said [that the] GoFundMe ended a fundraiser for the protesters over questionable donations to the group.” Do you disagree with that?
7:35 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
I do want to correct that February 2 is when we suspended the fundraiser. This effectively meant that all future donations and withdrawals were paused. We continued to do our diligence and removed the fundraiser on February 4.
7:35 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
This was a report from February 10, and I very carefully used the words “GoFundMe ended the fundraiser”, not “suspended” the fundraiser, but “ended the fundraiser for the protesters over questionable donations to the group.” That is false. Is that correct?
7:35 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
I understand that in and around the same time the convoy protest was happening here in Canada, there was a similar protest in Canberra, Australia. Are you aware of that?
7:35 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
I did some research. It was to protest the vaccine mandates in Australia just like in Canada, and coincidentally not only did you suspend and ultimately terminate in Australia as you did in Canada.... Are you not aware of that?
7:35 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
There were a number of similar campaigns protesting vaccine mandates, so I am aware that the team was looking at them, but the specifics of the Australia one, I am not aware of right now.
7:35 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Will you undertake to provide the information on that to confirm?
7:35 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
I'm not sure I understand. What would you like me to confirm?
7:35 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
I would like to confirm the nature of the protest in Australia, the timing of it, the reasons it was suspended and the reasons it was terminated.
7:35 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
It's a lot of information that I need to get together with our team. Forgive me, but I came here to discuss the Canadian protest—
7:35 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
I apologize.
I want to recognize that the senators have returned. As per our discussions, I would like to give them the opportunity to have their interventions, given the time that we have.
I would like to let them know that GiveSendGo pulled out about 10 minutes before the meeting started. We've had the good fortune of having Ms. Wilford here providing testimony over the last hour and a half.
We have about 15 minutes, which will give each of the senators the opportunity to have a five-minute intervention or an intervention of the length of their choosing under five minutes.
That being said, Senator Harder, would you like to start?
7:40 p.m.
Senator, Ontario, PSG
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the committee for continuing while we were voting.
Thank you to our witness for appearing.
I don't know if my line of questioning has been asked already, but I would like to know if your organization had any economic consequences of the funding that was provided to the convoy, in terms of other clients that withdrew as a result of your funding of the convoy.