GoFundMe holding $4.7M until organizers show plans

GoFundMe has frozen access to the more than $4.7 million in funds raised by the trucker convoy now wending its way across the country toward Ottawa in a protest against vaccine mandates.

“We require that fundraisers be transparent about the flow of funds and have a clear plan for how those funds will be spent. In this case, we are in touch with the organizer to verify that information,” Rachel Hollis, a spokeswoman for the crowdfunding platform, said in an email. “Funds will be safely held until the organizer is able to provide the documentation to our team about how funds will be properly distributed.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, funds were raised from 61,100 donors, according to the GoFundMe page of the “Freedom Convoy.”

Tamara Lich, who is also secretary of the fledgling Western separatist Maverick Party, launched the campaign on Jan. 14. It states that the money will go toward fuel as well as food and lodgings for bigriggers taking part.

“Our current government is implementing rules and mandates that are destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries and livelihoods,” the convoy’s GoFundMe page states. “We are a peaceful country that has helped protect nations across the globe from tyrannical governments who oppressed their people, and now it seems it is happening here.”

As of Jan. 15, the federal government required Canadian truckers to be fully vaccinated if they want to avoid a 14-day quarantine when they cross the border from the U.S.

Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan has also announced that vaccination will become mandatory for workers in all federally regulated industries, though no timeline has been laid out.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance, which has denounced the convoy protest, says more than 85 per cent of the 120,000 Canadian truck drivers who regularly traverse the border are vaccinated, but that up to 16,000 may be sidelined due to the new restriction, exacerbating supply chain problems.