Evidence of meeting #21 for Finance in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was information.
A video is available from Parliament.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Pardon me? What was the date on which a person first donated? I would not have that information.
All I can tell you—
Conservative
Jake Stewart Conservative Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB
That's interesting. The CRA, the Department of Justice and the Department of Finance were suspending civil liberties, and you don't have the information.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
No, what I mean is the date on which the order took effect was February 15. Financial institutions could not have used information obtained previously to freeze accounts.
I will turn to my colleague—
Conservative
Jake Stewart Conservative Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB
No, I have another question. There was one individual in my province who donated quite a sum of money, I believe. It was $75,000, or something like that. If that individual donated that money, let's say, three weeks ago, what will happen to that money? Where does it go?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I do not know where he donated the money. I don't know which entity he gave the money to. Let's say that it ended up in the financial system and that a bank could freeze the account of the person, if it's a person, or a company that received the funding. Then it would have been frozen if captured. Now that the activities have stopped, it would be unfrozen and remain in the account. It wouldn't go anywhere else. It stays in the account.
Conservative
Jake Stewart Conservative Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB
My question was, if somebody donated money before February 15, what happens to it?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
It should be where the person gave it. It shouldn't have been captured.
Conservative
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
It's where that person gave the money. Whom did they give it to?
Conservative
Jake Stewart Conservative Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB
I have no idea. I just see it in the newspaper. Let's say it was GoFundMe. Let's say somebody made a GoFundMe donation. You can make a donation to GoFundMe from anywhere in the world as long as you have a Visa or Mastercard or something. That's my understanding.
Let's say somebody made a donation February 7. Where does that money go?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
If that person, for example, gave it to GoFundMe, it went to the GoFundMe fund. As you may know, from the news that I read, they returned the money back to the donors on their own. The actions GoFundMe took were, I believe, their own, as they may not have been comfortable with the ongoing activities. I'm not the expert, and I don't have first-hand information.
I see that colleagues have their hands up.
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Annie Koutrakis Liberal Vimy, QC
I would like to ask the clerk to ask the interpreters if the interpretation is coming through because it's not coming through very clearly on my end.
Conservative
Jake Stewart Conservative Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB
This is a stalling tactic. This is a stalling tactic because they don't like the question.
Liberal
Conservative
The Clerk
Is Mr. Stewart coming through? Do you need more audio from Mr. Stewart? Is that what I'm getting from the interpreters?
Yes. We need more audio for Mr. Stewart for the interpreters.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
If we could slow down the pace, MP Stewart, when asking the questions—
Conservative
