Online fundraising for Ottawa protesters ‘facilitating’ crime, Ottawa police argue in court
Global News
Court document explains why funds raised on a U.S.-based crowdfunding campaign were frozen by the Ontario court as offence-related property.
A U.S.-based crowdfunding campaign for protesters who have laid siege to parts of Ottawa is “facilitating” crime, police wrote in a court affidavit used to freeze the funds.
The Ottawa Police Service said the roughly US$9 million raised on GiveSendGo was intended to sustain the protests, and was therefore “facilitating the indictable offence of mischief.”
Signed by a member of the provincial asset forfeiture unit, the affidavit said the money was “critical to sustaining the protest” and thus constituted “property intended to be used for committing indictable offences.”
The Superior Court of Justice agreed and froze the money raised on the Christian crowdfunding site as crime-related property following an application filed by the Ontario attorney general’s office.
The court order prohibits anyone from having any dealings with “donations made through the Freedom Convoy 2022 and Adopt-a-Trucker fundraising campaign pages hosted by GiveSendGo.”
The crowdfunding company responded on its Twitter account, writing: “Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo.”
Although the funds are frozen, donations continued to come in on Friday, some from donors who identified themselves as Americans and described Canada as a “tyranny.”
The fundraising campaign began on GoFundMe, but was shut down by the platform, which said the protest had become an “occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.”
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