A new fundraising website launched for the trucker convoy protest went down just one day after its launch was announced and celebrated by some of the convoy organizers in a press conference. The site showed a "404 - Page Not Found" error message Tuesday afternoon.
The site, which had been dubbed “Freedom Convoy 2022 Family Expense Support†stated that its key purpose is to “take care of home and family monthly expenses of truckers on the frontlines,†and that it was created because the GiveSendGo fundraiser is not to cover meant to those costs.
Pat King, a far-right figure who has previously decried the “depopulation†of white people and has posted videos online where he makes racist remarks about Jewish, Muslim and Chinese people, hosted a “Hug A Trucker Conference†press conference Monday.
At the conference King and his companions revealed the new crowdfunding platform on the same day the federal government announced that crowdfunding platforms will now have to comply with Canada’s financial watchdog, and authorized banks to freeze accounts suspected of connections to the protests.
“We hope to do this by facilitating the connection between donors and needy families with direct (donor to family) e-transfers,†the site said, listing expenses such as mortgages, truck payments and household utilities.
As of Tuesday morning $91,710.00 has been “pledged†and the site is asking for $225,043.78.
“How this program works is they pair off a donor with a recipient, so they work directly with a family or a trucker driver and a supporter†said Dana Metcalfe, a former PPC candidate, at King’s conference Monday.
She also claimed that “veterans have come forward†to begin taking collections in the community that are going “directly into the hands†of the truckers, as they continue to try and release funds from their other platforms.
GiveSendGo’s website still says it is “offline†for maintenance and server upgrades after a hack that exposed 92,000 donors to the trucker convoy fundraiser.
The minimum amount to pledge to donate on the new site was $250, and the maximum was listed as $5,000 or more, with a note explaining that anyone wishing to donate less than the minimum should do so via GiveSendGo, as the site does not have the staff to process or facilitate the smaller amounts.
The maximum amount listed to pledge on the site of $5,000 falls well below the threshold of the new financial reporting rules announced Monday by the federal government, which states that crowdfunding sites will be required to report suspicious, large cash and large virtual currency transactions to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).
Electronic transfers of $10,000 or more, out of or into Canada in a single transaction, or of two of more transactions totalling $10,000, must also be reported.
That means larger donations on the new website are required to be reported to FINTRAC.
“These changes cover all forms of transactions, including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. The illegal blockades have highlighted the fact that crowdfunding platforms and some of the payment service providers they use are not fully captured under the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act,†Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday.
There have been reports of bank accounts frozen as of Monday in relation to the new federal financial crackdown.
----
With files from CTVNews.ca Producer Sarah Turnbull
