GoFundMe Denies Seizing Funds Raised for Freedom Convoy

Protesters seen during the Freedom Convoy demonstrations against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions in the Parliament Hill area in downtown Ottawa on Jan. 29, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Crowdfunding company GoFundMe has denied seizing donors’ money after it shut down the fundraising account for the trucker’s protest in Ottawa, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

A letter from lawyers sent to the Public Order Emergency Commission inquiry said rumours that GoFundMe failed to promptly refund contributions were a misunderstanding.

“All donors are expected to see a full refund including any tip and transaction fee,” the letter said.

GoFundMe took their Freedom Convoy fundraiser offline on Feb. 4. Juan Benitez, former president of GoFundMe, said that neither the federal government nor local authorities contacted him to dismantle the fundraiser. He said he proactively sought them out after hearing their statements in the media.

At that time, GoFundMe said donors could choose another independent charity for their funds to go to or request a refund, but this became misunderstood after rumours circulated on social media, causing people to lash out at GoFundMe, according to the lawyers.

“Shortly after making its announcement GoFundMe employees experienced a flood of violent and threatening messages including death threats,” the lawyers wrote. The letter mentioned Tim Pool, who told his million followers on Twitter, “GoFundMe just stole the Freedom Convoy’s money.”

GoFundMe released a statement on Feb. 5 saying that due to “donor feedback” it would automatically refund donors to “simplify the process.”

$10 Million, Mostly Canadian

“Our records show that 88 percent of donated funds originated in Canada, and 86 percent of donors were from Canada,” said Benitez back in March.

The letter to the Emergencies Act inquiry from the lawyers said that fundraising for the protest reached approximately $10 million from over 133,000 donors.

Benitez said GoFundMe could detect nefarious activities, but nothing was significant enough to report. “Our tools did flag some behaviour that we deemed unacceptable, and we did remove some donations,” he said.

“There was virtually no, perhaps a handful at most, of donations from Russia. In our opinion and the evidence we see, there was just no coordinated effort there to have any kind of contribution or impact.”

Multiple government officials had suggested that the protests could be foreign-funded.

“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 Feb. 16.

“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,” Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told reporters Feb. 16.

A transcript at the Oct. 18 commission hearing showed that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service advised the federal government on Feb. 6 that “CSIS has also not seen any foreign money coming from other states to support this.”

Noé Chartier contributed to this report.