Liberal allegations the Freedom Convoy truckers were largely funded by foreigners were completely inaccurate, MPs heard Thursday..Executives with crowdfunding sites that attracted millions of dollars for truckers said individual donations were small and overwhelmingly Canadian..“Our records show 88% of donated funds originated in Canada and 86% of donors were from Canada,” Juan Benitez, president of GoFundMe, of Redwood City, California, testified at the Commons public safety committee..Blacklock’s Reporter said donors contributed $10.1 million to the Freedom Convoy by the time GoFundMe suspended the account February 4 at the request of Ottawa’s mayor..Foreign funding was insignificant, said Benitez..“A large amount of that determination is based on credit card information,” he said..Nor was there any evidence neo-Nazi or criminal organizations contributed to the Freedom Convoy, said Benitez..“Did you ever identify there was anyone on a terrorist watch list in the United States or Canada or anywhere in the world who donated through GoFundMe? Any sort of organized crime elements?” asked Conservative MP Dane Lloyd (Sturgeon River-Parkland, Alta.)..“We do extensive screening,” replied Benitez..“So you didn’t identify any problematic people donating to the convoy and if you had identified those people you would have stopped it, is that correct?” asked MP Lloyd..“That’s correct,” replied Benitez..GoFundMe’s suspension of the Freedom Convoy account prompted donors to contribute $10.6 million through a separate platform, GiveSendGo LLC of Boston. About 63% of contributions were from Canada, GiveSendGo executives testified..“Most of the donations were under a hundred dollars,” said Jacob Wells, co-founder of GiveSendGo..“It’s pretty consistent across the board..“We believe completely to the core of our being the danger of the suppression of speech is much more dangerous than the speech itself and this has been tested through history.”.The Government of Ontario on February 11 obtained a Superior Court order to freeze the GiveSendGo account..Lloyd noted the testimony directly contradicted cabinet claims of foreign interference..“There has been a lot of rhetoric that we’ve heard in Parliament about foreign financing, that this was a foreign-funded campaign to undermine Canada’s national security, but we see numbers that 88% of donors were Canadians.”.Cabinet on February 16 repeatedly claimed foreign extremists were using Freedom Convoy protesters to threaten Canadian democracy..“It is important that we follow the money because for a number of weeks there have been alarm bells going off about the rate at which the leaders have been able to raise significant funds, much of which has been raised from abroad,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said at the time..“We have seen strong evidence that it was the intention of those who blockaded our ports of entry in a largely foreign funded, targeted and coordinated attack which was clearly criminally intended to harm Canada, to harm Canadians,” said Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair..“We cannot leave anyone with the impression our democracy is negotiable or subject to efforts of appeasement..“Canada is a strong and democratic nation. We will not let any foreign entities that seek to harm Canada or Canadians or erode trust in our democratic institutions or question the legitimacy of our democracy.”.Commons public safety committee hearings on the Freedom Convoy were requested by MP Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat, B.C.), New Democrat public safety critic..“People are rightly worried about American interference,” MacGregor said February 7..The MP had no comment on evidence that few Americans and no extremist groups were among Freedom Convoy donors.
