‘You did not communicate’: GiveSendGo says government is to blame for convoy fundraising

OTTAWA—The two crowdfunding platforms linked to the so-called Freedom Convoy protests are staunchly defending how they handled fundraising efforts behind the demonstration, suggesting that Canadian officials failed to initiate talks that could have better informed their response.

Top representatives from GoFundMe and GiveSendGo were grilled Thursday in a heated meeting of the House of Commons public safety committee. The committee has met several times to study the federal government’s response to convoy-related blockades and protests and how the Ottawa demonstration was financed.

“You did not communicate with us at all about what was going on. We had to hear about it second and third hand, as we’re trying to walk out what we should be doing as best practices,” said Heather Wilson, co-founder of Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo.

That platform hosted two fundraising campaigns on its site, which together collected more than $10 million (US). Both campaigns were launched after another fundraiser on GoFundMe was shut down in early February because the unlawful nature of the protest violated the platform’s terms of service. At the time, GoFundMe said it would halt payments to convoy organizers and refund donors directly.

Days later, the Ontario government obtained an order from the Superior Court of Justice preventing anyone from distributing donations collected through GiveSendGo’s campaigns. Then, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act, requiring crowdfunding platforms to follow Canada’s rules on financial reporting and allowing banks to freeze certain accounts.

Juan Benitez, president of GoFundMe, told MPs that 88 per cent of donated funds came from Canada. Jacob Wells, Wilson’s brother and GiveSendGo’s other founder, confirmed that about 60 per cent of donations to their campaigns originated in Canada and about 37 per cent came from the United States.

Wilson told MPs that her platform was never contacted by federal or provincial officials and that her team was relying solely on information shared in news articles and on social media.

Benitez said GoFundMe only worked with local law enforcement and local authorities, and received no contact from the federal government. Benitez said it was his company that reached out to law enforcement first, after seeing crowdfunding sites related to the convoy mentioned in social media and on the news.

But Liberal MP Pam Damoff argued that because dealing with the convoy primarily fell under provincial jurisdiction until the Emergencies Act was invoked, there was “no reason” for top government officials to engage with crowdfunding sites.

Both platforms stood behind their handling of the fundraisers hosted on their sites, with Kim Wilford, providing counsel for GoFundMe, saying she was “proud” of the platform’s “responsible and timely” response.

Rejecting arguments from MPs who said there was clear evidence from the outset that unlawful activity would take place — including pledges to overthrow the government — Benitez said the fundraiser initially fell within GoFundMe’s terms of service.

“Of course, subsequent to that, things immediately and very rapidly changed. Communication changed, information on the facts changed, the convoy itself changed. And we responded to those changes.”

The founders of GiveSendGo, whose campaigns are still active though the funds have not been distributed, said there will always be “fringe elements” to any protest and said they felt the Ottawa demonstration was largely “lawful”.

“So you believe that violating sound ordinances or traffic violations, blocking off entire streets outside the capital is perfectly lawful, perfectly reasonable, even though it’s considered unlawful?” Liberal MP Taleeb Noormohamed said during a particularly fraught exchange.

“I don’t necessarily know that those things happened,” Wells replied.

Wells said he didn’t believe in “mandating litmus tests for how good people ought to be in order to use public services,” stating he would even allow campaigns from the Ku Klux Klan to be hosted on his site as long as the activity was “legal”.

Ultimately, GoFundMe’s Benitez said there would always be opportunities “to learn and improve”.

“We hope the committee acknowledges the responsible actions we took in close consultation with local authorities,” he said.

GiveSendGo’s Wilson, meanwhile, touted the importance of “grace” in situations of disagreement.

“We need to give grace to ourselves to just understand we’re not going to get it right every time. And we’re going to continue walking this out and learning what God has put in front of us,” she said.