Evidence of meeting #20 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 funds.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
GoFundMe stopped giving the “freedom convoy” protesters money because they deemed their actions were no longer peaceful. They said they'd become “an occupation”, so you stepped into that fundraising void.
Is that correct? Are you aware of that?
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
I wasn't sure of the terminology that GoFundMe used. We don't take our policy from GoFundMe.
The convoy approached us. Campaigns come to our platform of their own volition all the time.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
You said that you had a verification team and that you always have a verification team for your campaigns and on your platform. There were unlawful activities that were occurring with these protesters that turned into a blockade. There were things like assaults, threats and damage to property. In fact, the Ottawa Police Service testified at this committee that 500 arrests were made.
Did your verification team verify any of that?
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
What we verify with a campaign is the identity of the people involved and what they are advocating for. There's always—
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Did you make any efforts to ascertain whether illegal activity was occurring?
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
You indicated that you were not in contact with the Ottawa Police Service. Is that correct?
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Did you continue to make available to individuals who were part of the “freedom convoy” property that was being used to fund and support the blockade?
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Did you continue to make available property funding to individuals who were participating in the blockade?
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
No. The campaign on GiveSendGo didn't have anything to do with the blockade. It was specific to Ottawa.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
There were people who described what happened in Ottawa as a blockade, including the former mayor of Ottawa, for example.
Let me move to my next question.
The Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, sought an injunction to prevent you from distributing funds to the people who were accessing the funds on your platform. When that injunction was obtained in the court in Ontario, did you respect that court order?
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Can you explain to me a tweet that was posted on your platform? It's from the same day that the injunction was obtained. This is from the GiveSendGo Twitter account on February 10. It says:
Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo. All funds for EVERY campaign on GiveSendGo flow directly to the recipients of those campaigns, not least of which is The Freedom Convoy campaign.
Why are you tweeting about that if you're respecting court orders?
December 1st, 2022 / 8:50 p.m.
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
To be honest, I'm not exactly sure who tweeted that, but there were a lot of elements involved. GiveSendGo took this as an opportunity as a business and we advanced our platform as a result of it, but the campaign and the funds that were coming from that campaign, in particular, were coming here to the U.S.
As accounts go and as court orders go, there are jurisdictional issues and the jurisdiction was abided by, according to the jurisdiction of where funds were.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Actually, the events, as we've heard at this committee, indicate quite the opposite. The money would go from GiveSendGo to a Canadian bank and then to an individual blockader. It was the Canadian banks that accepted the authority of the jurisdiction of that decision. It wasn't GiveSendGo at all.
Do you have a response to that?
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
The funds for that campaign were coming to the United States. They weren't going to a representative in Canada. The funds were being held here in the United States, which was outside of the jurisdiction of the Canadian court.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Right. That explains your tweet. However, ultimately, when the funds get released—I'm not talking about the donation of the funds; I'm talking about the release of the funds—they go via a Canadian bank to an individual.
My question to you is, were you at all concerned? If you weren't concerned about the impact on the Canadian economy, were you concerned about the fact that auto industry shift workers were being stopped and shifts were being closed in places like Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio?
Did you have a sense of the impact of your funding these illegal blockades on the American economy?
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
There was no impact of the fundraising campaigns, because the funds never reached the convoy. To say that there was an impact would be a misstatement, because they never reached the convoy to have an impact.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Mr. Virani, your time is up.
We'll move to Mr. Fortin.
You have five minutes.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Wells, in response to questions from our colleague Mr. Brock, you read out some statistics on a breakdown of the funds that you had raised and the individuals to whom they were disbursed.
What exactly is in that document? What information does it contain?
Did you hear my question, Mr. Wells?
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Madam Chair, I would like the clock to be stopped. I could start over once we have interpretation back. We should check with the interpretation service.
The Joint Clerk of the Committee Mr. Mark Palmer
Mr. Wells, I just want to confirm that on your Zoom screen, on the bottom, you have a globe that says “interpretation”. If you choose interpretation, you can choose the English translation to make sure you're getting English translation.