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.
For two days, the downtown core of the nation's capital has been a no-go zone as trucks and crowds have snarled traffic, with some members defacing monuments and wielding signs with violent and hateful imagery. Police are also investigating what they describe as threatening behaviour toward officers, city workers and other individuals, as well as damage to a city vehicle.
Trudeau is fully vaccinated and received his booster shot at a local Ottawa pharmacy in early January. Last Thursday, Trudeau said he was going into isolation for five days after finding out the previous evening he had been in contact with someone who tested positive.
The one per cent tax was to take effect at the start of the year and the Finance Department estimates it will bring in $200 million in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, which begins in April.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to address Canadians Monday afternoon, following three days of unrest that has brought the divisive arguments about vaccine mandates and public health restrictions soaring back to the top of the agenda.
The government last year announced it would spend $85 million to plow through the backlogged applications, which Fraser says will be used mainly to hire more staff.
The party's electoral district for the rural Saskatchewan riding of Battlefords-Lloydminster announced today it has launched a petition it plans to present to the Conservatives' national council.
