Protesters opposed to health measures in Canada turned to a Christian fundraising site after their support campaign was frozen by GoFundMe, a decision denounced by American officials who accuse the crowdfunding site of “deceptive practices”.
• Read also: Convoy of freedom: more than $ 1 million raised on a site popular with the far right
• Read also: Convoy of truckers: GoFundMe officially cuts funds to Ottawa protesters
Called “Freedom Convoy”, this movement has blocked the center of the capital Ottawa with heavy goods vehicles since January 29.
Initiated by truck drivers who denounced the obligation to vaccinate to cross the border with the United States, the movement has spread throughout the country by turning into a protest against health measures as a whole and, for some demonstrators, against the government of Justin Trudeau.
Opened at the end of January on GoFundMe, a support kitty received more than 10 million Canadian dollars. But the platform withdrew the kitty on Friday on the grounds that it violated its terms of use.
She then clarified that donors could request a refund and that the remaining funds would be redistributed to charities of her choice.
“We have evidence that the hitherto peaceful protest has turned into an occupation, with police reporting violence and other illegal activity,” the site said in a statement.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson hailed GoFundMe’s decision, but it upset several US politicians who support Canadian truckers.
“It’s theft,” Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, himself born in Canada, launched on Fox News on Sunday, calling the protesters “heroes” and “patriots” who “stand up for Canada and America. “.
He said he asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate possible “deceptive practices” by GoFundMe.
And several conservative states like West Virginia, Florida and Texas have threatened to open legal investigations against the site, saying it has no right to redirect funds as it pleases.
Former President Donald Trump has condemned the cancellation of a Facebook account in the United States in support of protesters and the freezing of the donation campaign by GoFundMe.
“This is unacceptable and extremely dangerous in any country that values free expression,” he said in a statement.
Elon Musk, whimsical billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, for his part castigated the “double standard” of GoFundMe.
In a tweet, he recalled that in the summer of 2020, the site had authorized a fundraising campaign in favor of anti-racist demonstrators who had transformed downtown Seattle into an “autonomous zone”, an occupation enamelled with violence.
To end the controversy and escape prosecution, GoFundMe announced on Saturday that all campaign donors would be automatically reimbursed.
Truckers have launched a new fundraising campaign via the Christian site GiveSendGo, which had already raised more than $4.8 million on Monday.
The freezing of a fundraiser by GoFundme is not a first.
Last year, the site blocked a campaign to fund the defense of a young white American, Kyle Rittenhouse, charged with shooting dead two men during a 2020 anti-racism protest, saying the site was banning donations to pay for attorneys’ fees in violent crime cases.
The campaign was able to resume after the acquittal of the young man.
Online payment services have also deprived organizations of funds for violating their terms of service.
In 2010, Paypal and several banks blocked funds from the Wikileaks website, which became Washington’s pet peeve after the broadcast of confidential American diplomatic cables that caused a global scandal.
More recently, the online payment platform Stripe closed the account of the French far-right group Génération Identitaire in 2018, believing that it was encouraging violence against foreigners.
Reference-www.tvanouvelles.ca