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.
9 p.m.
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
We call every campaign owner and we do pray with them about the issue they have going on. I don't—
9 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Serial killer Kyle Rittenhouse—you prayed with him and raised money for him?
9 p.m.
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
The young man who was exonerated in U.S. courts for self-defence...?
9 p.m.
NDP
9 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Okay.
As it relates to the 2021 United States Capitol attack, PayPal suspended your payments to GiveSendGo during a campaign to raise funds—
9 p.m.
NDP
9 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
So you did not raise any money for people involved in the United States Capitol attack.
9:05 p.m.
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
Not that I'm aware of. We had fundraisers prior to January 6 for people going to a rally in Washington, D.C. That was the extent of those campaigns—to get airfare and lodging in D.C. on the days...for the rally that was happening on January 6, yes.
9:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Knowing what you know now, given all the hearings that have happened, would you classify that as a rally, sir? Was that a lawful rally, which resulted in the murder of a Capitol Hill police officer? Was that a lawful rally, in your opinion?
9:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Was an officer not murdered? I'm sorry, sir, I'm not from the United States. Was an officer not murdered on the Capitol?
9:05 p.m.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Perhaps we have better access to your media than you do, sir.
The Canadian convoy protest is another controversial entity that you've picked up. What I'm suggesting here, sir, is that there is a bit of a theme with some of the activities you are involved in that tiptoe around a grey area. I'm just wondering how you profit from that. I'm wondering, in terms of your....
I see that I am out of time. I'll come back to the witness at the appropriate time.
Thank you.
9:05 p.m.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Thank you, Mr. Green. Thanks for understanding.
Can you take the chair, Mr. Green?
December 1st, 2022 / 9:05 p.m.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Thank you very much.
Thank you for appearing with us today.
I'd like to understand in a little more detail the verification process. I'm not as familiar with your platform. What you call verification and maybe what I call verification might be different. Can you walk me through that?
9:05 p.m.
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
Sure. Thank you for the question.
When somebody comes onto GiveSendGo, prior to going through a process called KYC, or “know your customer”, which is a regulatory process of identifying who the person is who is receiving funds, we allow campaigns to begin receiving funds. Prior to them receiving those funds, they go through a process of becoming identified through a social security number or a licence or some form of identification. That's matched against all sorts of databases to make sure they're not on a list or not able to use the financial systems that are in place. If they are flagged because they are on one of those lists, then they are not able to receive those funds.
In partnership with that, we read through the campaign and what the campaign is requesting funds for. We ensure that it adheres to the laws of the land, that they're not doing things that are illegal and that they are not trying to raise money to go murder somebody or do something illegal. We ensure that their ask is a legitimate ask.
9:05 p.m.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
In this case, would you be looking at the laws of the land, as you say, in Canada—
9:05 p.m.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
—or are you talking about the U.S. because that's where you are?
9:05 p.m.
Co-Founder, GiveSendGo
When people onboard from foreign countries, they go through that same process that's required of that country for them to be able to access the financial system, so everybody who comes on board in Canada goes through the process of being verified in Canada according to the Canadian standards for being able to access the financial system.
That's how we vet people.
9:05 p.m.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
You mentioned social security numbers. Would you have access to those numbers in Canada? How do you verify that?