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.
A pediatrician who has researched COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among parents in Canada, the United States and Israel is urging people concerned about getting their children vaccinated to talk to a health-care provider as the Omicron variant pushes cases to all-time highs.
British Columbia's seniors advocate is asking the province to designate one person as an essential visitor for every long-term care resident as the facilities move to stem the spread of COVID-19. Isobel Mackenzie says in a news release that the need to limit visitors has left a majority of long-term care residents without visits from loved ones.
There are 31,817 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 238,524 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 324 individuals are in hospital and 90 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
With the harsh winter conditions in the Lower mainland, Alex Fraser Bridge has been shut down in both directions. A tweet from Drive BC says to use an alternate route
Provincial health officer for British Columbia Dr. Bonnie Henry said in a news conference Tuesday that schools are "not a major source of transmission." But other experts say schools need to take extra care against the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
B.C.'s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry warned earlier this week that businesses, schools and health facilities could lose up to a third of their staff due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.
