Evidence of meeting #31 for Finance in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was gofundme.
A video is available from Parliament.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
That's correct.
Thank you.
You mentioned a couple of times that it wasn't clear at the beginning how narrowly or how broadly this act was to apply. Is that correct?
3:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Credit Union Association
That's correct. Yes.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
You did notice a material or a noticeable increase in withdrawal activity subsequent to the act.
3:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Credit Union Association
I would say it's anecdotal. There was some activity of withdrawals.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Okay.
You're in the trust business. You're on the front lines dealing with clients. Obviously they need to trust you to hold their money. I feel that you're well suited to answer this question. Do you think there's been some erosion of trust between Canadians and government just after the act, or given how, maybe, confusing it was at the beginning, or with the miscommunication, whether intentional or not? How do you think that's impacted how people feel about their financial security?
3:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Credit Union Association
Based on the fact that, speaking anecdotally, we saw some withdrawals.... I know that credit unions really had to answer a lot of questions from members about the circumstances under which the government can freeze accounts, because many Canadians were surprised that the government had that authority. I wouldn't make a broad statement, but I would certainly say that, for some, that was an issue.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Thank you very much.
I'll move to GiveSendGo. Has your company ever ignored a court order?
3:20 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
Thank you for the question.
I just want to correct you. We are GoFundMe; we are not GiveSendGo.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
3:20 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
That's fine.
Mr. Chair, what I would say is no. We operate within all the laws of all the jurisdictions where we are. We would never ignore a court order, so no.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Right, and that's exactly what I would expect.
I guess what I'm getting at is had you been presented with a court order or the authorities had provided you with relevant jurisdictional requirements to freeze an account or take any action, it is conceivable that you would have complied. Is that correct?
3:20 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
That is correct. The facts and the circumstances of this case were so quickly evolving that once we had that credible, consistent information and we could see that the protest was turning in a way that violated our terms, we removed it from our platform. Certainly if we had some sort of court order, an injunction of any kind telling us that was occurring, we would have complied.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Thank you.
Do the campaigns that are active today all comply with your terms of use right now?
3:20 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
Mr. Chair, we have hundreds of thousands of campaigns. We are the world's largest and best-known social fundraising platform. All of our campaigns are required to comply with our terms of use, which clearly outline the permitted and prohibited conduct on the platform. When we become aware of issues through our reviews or through the help of the GoFundMe community, which can at any time report a fundraiser for any reason, we investigate all of those, and as circumstances change during the time that a campaign remains live on the platform, it may go from being within permissible use on our platform to not being, and at that point we will remove it.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Thank you.
You wouldn't have the capabilities to check that every single campaign on your platform would be compliant. Is that correct?
3:20 p.m.
General Counsel, GoFundMe
In fact, we use a number of tools and technology to ensure to the best of our abilities that campaigns on our platform are within acceptable use.
3:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you. That's the time, MP Chambers.
We are moving to the Liberals.
MP Dzerowicz, go ahead for five minutes, please.
3:25 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Thanks so much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all of the witnesses before us today. Thank you so much for your time. This is a very important meeting on the implications of the Emergencies Act, particularly the economic order measure. Thank you for being here with us today.
I just want to start off very quickly. I know that GoFundMe indicated that a high percentage of the donations that came in to them for the “trucker convoy”, which I'll put in quotes, came from Canadians. I do want to put on the record though, Mr. Chair—and I think it is important to do so—that according to a February 14 Toronto Star article, “Nearly 41 per cent of the more than $10.7 million donated to the 'Freedom convoy' through an online fundraising site has come from the United States, leaked data suggests.” I think it is very important to put that on the record. We have found that sources have validated that, indeed, foreign investments have gone into the “freedom convoy”.
3:25 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
On a point of order, Mr. Chair, Ms. Dzerowicz has purported to put evidence on the record. I hope that is not accepted as evidence, because quoting the Toronto Star is speculation; it's not evidence.
3:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, Mr. Fast. That's not a point of order.
Ms. Dzerowicz has the opportunity to make her comments freely. If she wants to cite where that evidence comes from, she can.
3:25 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Mr. Chair, I'm hoping you're not going to ding me for that non-point of order, but it looks as though Mr. Benitez might have something to respond to that.
Go ahead very quickly, Mr. Benitez, just because I'd like to go to Mr. Volpe.
3:25 p.m.
President, GoFundMe
Yes, thank you. I just want to quickly clarify that the statistics and numbers that we're quoting here are the facts of what we observed and processed through the GoFundMe platform. It may be that media reports—and I'm not familiar with this specific one—are related. You did mention leaked data. We had no leaked data on GoFundMe. That leaked data came from information run on a different platform that was not GoFundMe, so that data is not our data.
3:25 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
No, and I'm sorry, Mr. Benitez, just in case you misheard me, I said it was GiveSendGo's leaked data. It wasn't GoFundMe. If that did not come across clearly, I want to clarify that for the record. Thank you for that.
It was not you, and I was not disputing what you said, and I wasn't disputing your numbers at all. It was more another platform. I just wanted to leave with the public who might be listening that there is evidence that there was a foreign contribution into the “freedom convoy”.
I'll turn now to you, Mr. Volpe. You were very clear and articulate about the impact of the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge on the economy as well as workers. What damage did the blockades do to Canada's international reputation, and had they not been stopped through some measures like the Emergencies Act, what would the additional blockades or renewed blockades have done?