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.”
Convoy protest could change the way money is monitored, says watchdog agency
The use of American crowdfunding sites to financially fuel the anti-vaccine mandate convoy protest in Ottawa could lead to changes in the way financial transactions are monitored, a top official with Canada’s money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog told members of Parliament Thursday.
Testifying before members of the House of Commons committee on public safety and national security, Barry MacKillop, deputy director of intelligence for the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), said there are likely lessons to be learned from the protest.
