Alternate campaigns that were set up for the “Freedom Convoy” are now blocked from giving money out to the campaign organizers.
Two new campaigns have raised over $8 million in US funds, but if flipped into Canadian dollars, it’s worth more than $11.4 million combined.
The Ontario government petitioned the Superior Court to freeze organizer access to the funds. A spokesperson for Doug Ford said “any and all parties with possession or control over these donations” will have their access frozen and the website hosting the campaigns isn’t to distribute the funds.
Part of the Criminal Code allows the attorney general to place a hold order against any offence-related property.
Fintrac, Canada’s financial intelligence unit, is mandated to identify money related to terrorist financing as banks report transactions. They would then pass any intelligence onto police.
MP’s in the House of Commons heard testimony from the intelligence unit that they don’t cover crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. Instead they identify cash that is linked to terrorist financing and laundering schemes from data it receives from banking institutions, insurance companies, money service businesses as well as casinos.
Fintrac does not investigate crimes, they instead take the info to police.
