Ontario Government Has Court Freeze GiveSendGo Freedom Convoy Funds

The Ontario PC government has just announced that Attorney General Doug Downey has brought an application to the Superior Court of Justice which has effectively frozen all donations made to the Freedom Convoy 2022 organization on GiveSendGo. 

This affects both the main organization’s fundraiser as well as the Adopt-A-Trucker fundraiser on the GiveSendGo platform.

Premier Doug Ford’s government is being so draconian with their crackdown on the convoy that they are prohibiting anyone from “dealing with, in any manner whatsoever, the monetary donations made through the Freedom Convoy 2022 and Adopt-a-Trucker campaign pages,” which means they are arguing any use of the money would be considered illegal.

This is based on Section 490.8 of the criminal code which allows the Attorney General to seize property that he believes to be  “offence-related property” meaning that it is property involved in the carrying out of a crime. 

What is deeply concerning with the argument the Ontario government is trying to argue is that the protest around Ottawa is somehow illegal. Quite ironic seeing as the Wet’suwet’an hereditary chief’s protest that blocked railways and prevented the construction of a pipeline on private property never had its GoFundMe campaign shut down or assets frozen.

People have the right to protest in Canada and it is a dangerous path to go down if the government begins to pick and choose which messages they allow people to protest to bring attention to.

It should be noted that the protest around Parliament in Ottawa and the various border blockades in Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario would all end if the government would remove mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions like the rest of the western world is doing. 

The Ontario government thinks these blockades constitute illegal activity due to their disruption of infrastructure, in spite of the fact that over the past two years the government has bankrupted thousands of small businesses with their irrational lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions.

Instead, it looks like Doug Ford and the Ontario government want to make a point by refusing to listen to the Freedom Convoy supporters.

The good news is that the Freedom Convoy 2022 organizers have proactively been fundraising with Bitcoin, which the government is unable to control the flow of, due to its decentralized model.

UPDATE: GiveSendGO responded to the Ontario government’s court application that is attempting to freeze funds raised on the fundraising platform.