The coverage of how the Canadian government has treated the "Freedom Convoy" of truckers for protesting restrictions to do with the Wuhan coronavirus has been disquieting, especially since there's another unpleasant update. Last week, after GoFundMe froze donations for Canadian truckers, GiveSendGo stepped in, though that too now appears to be in jeopardy. Reports came in on Thursday night that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted a request from the provincial government to freeze access to the donations. Such news led to "GiveSendGo" trending on Twitter.
According to CBC News:
A statement from Premier Doug Ford's office on Thursday said Attorney General Doug Downey brought the application for the order, under Section 490.8 of the Criminal Code, to prohibit anyone from distributing donations made through the website's "Freedom Convoy 2022" and "Adopt-a-Trucker" campaign pages.
Ivana Yelich, a spokesperson for the premier, said the order "binds any and all parties with possession or control over these donations."
Ottawa Premier Doug Ford tweeted out on Thursday night that the truckers were "occupations," which spokesperson Ivana Yelich retweeted.
I spoke with Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau this evening about the ongoing occupations in Ottawa and Windsor. We will continue working together to support our police forces as they manage these situations. We both agreed this must come to an end.
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) February 10, 2022
A short time after the reports came out, GiveSendGo tweeted a response signaling that they would not comply.
Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo. All funds for EVERY campaign on GiveSendGo flow directly to the recipients of those campaigns, not least of which is The Freedom Convoy campaign.
— GiveSendGo (@GiveSendGo) February 11, 2022
Ezra Levant, of RebelNews, which has been covering the "Freedom Convoy" thoroughly via ConvoyReports.com, tweeted out the court order in a lengthy thread.
35. P.S. Here's the full court order -- it's not much more than the bare bones of the law I've reviewed above: https://t.co/Zh5OQYLhoz
— Ezra Levant ???? (@ezralevant) February 11, 2022
Levant explained, among other things, how the process can be quite secretive in Canada.
3. The court hearing is done in secret -- for the element of surprise. In legalese, "ex parte" -- without the other party there. So it was a sneak attack. The application "may be made ex parte and shall be made in writing to a judge and be accompanied by an affidavit."
— Ezra Levant ???? (@ezralevant) February 11, 2022
19. The order has to be served on the parties who own the money. I'm guessing they're serving it on both GiveSendGo and Tamara Lich. GiveSendGo sounds pretty revved up: https://t.co/jdly1OHKuf
— Ezra Levant ???? (@ezralevant) February 11, 2022
Levant seemed sure that the truckers will keep fighting.
33. Follow https://t.co/QBAE7LfY31 to see what's really going on out there. More bridges to America have been blocked. More border crossings. In more provinces, by more truckers and farmers.
— Ezra Levant ???? (@ezralevant) February 11, 2022
You can't take them all to court. You can't seize all of their bank accounts.
For all of the disdain that government officials have shown towards the truckers, buried at the bottom of the report from CBC News is a mention that the government has turned down talks.
"Also on Thursday, representatives of the Ontario government declined a third invitation to participate in trilateral talks to deal with ongoing vaccine mandate protests, sources told CBC News," the report mentioned. "A meeting of representatives of all three levels of government was scheduled for the afternoon."
29. We'll find out soon. I hope the truckers get a good lawyer. It will be fascinating to see what the government alleged as the crime and the connection.
— Ezra Levant ???? (@ezralevant) February 11, 2022
That's probably a few days away.
But the blowback is already here. Because the world has taken Canada's measure.
In his thread, Levant also expressed hope that the truckers have a good lawyer. On Thursday, before news about GiveSendGo was reported, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced it had set up a defense lawyer hotline for the truckers.