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.
Dr. Bonnie Henry says that's possible in part because 90 per cent of residents aged 12 and over have received two doses of vaccine, though more people need to get a booster shot for longer-lasting protection.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Trudeau says the "freedom convoy" is no longer a protest against the federal vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers and has morphed into a forum for a small minority of "very angry" people opposed to all public health measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, some of whom espouse violence.
The BC Prosecution Service announced in April it was not in the public interest to pursue criminal contempt charges against protesters, but a B.C. Supreme Court ruling last month found CN could continue its own legal action.
The High Commission of India in Ottawa and RCMP released the identities of the four who died. They were Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, a 39-year-old man; Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, a 37-year-old woman; and their children Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel, an 11-year-old girl; and Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel, a three-year-old boy.
While vaccines have played a major role in protecting homes from the same deadly toll the first wave of COVID-19 took on residents, the impact has still been profound during the Omicron wave.
Kingston police announced on Twitter that the last vehicles in the convoy had departed the city around 9:30 a.m. Friday, putting its likely arrival in the capital at around noon.
