Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 28 Feb, 2022 01:15 PM
An Ontario court has extended to March 9 a freezing order on funds donated to the recent Ottawa convoy protest, as a class-action civil suit against protest organizers continues.
Parties in the case have agreed to move some donated funds and cryptocurrency into escrow, which could be redistributed to affected Ottawa residents and business owners should the class action succeed.
Norman Groot, a lawyer representing some convoy protest leaders, says ChristopherGarrah, Benjamin Dichter and Nicholas St. Louis have agreed in principle to moving donated funds within their control to an escrow account.
Groot notes the funds that Garrah, Dichter and St. Louis have agreed to move to escrow might not account for all the cryptocurrency that was donated, and he proposed parties meet next week to take stock of what has been transferred.
An escrow agent will oversee the transferred funds, and will be permitted to change the passwords for cryptocurrency.
The class-action lawsuit seeks a total of $306 million in damages related to the three-week anti-government convoy protest near Parliament Hill that snarled traffic, shut businesses and plagued residents with near-constant honking.
Recently, Surrey RCMP has seen a few instances of men hiring an escort, meeting at a prearranged location for a sexual encounter and then being robbed. It is believed that others may have been victimized but have not come forward to police.
Abbotsford has been preparing for more floodwater as the Nooksack River overruns the dike. City of Abbotsford and Abbotsford Police have been preparing in full force.
Border services officers from the Metro Vancouver Marine Operations examined the container using a wide range of detection tools and technology, and upon physical inspection, noted discrepancies in the packaging and the substance within the bags.
There are 3,035 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 211,577 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 291 individuals are in hospital and 115 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Friday a pandemic aid program to help oil and gas companies cut their methane emissions will be revisited now that the industry is back on its feet.
The new variant, dubbed Omicron, first emerged in South Africa and coincided with a steep rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in that region in recent weeks, according to the World Health Organization.
