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.
There are 688 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 and 108 are in intensive care. In the past 96 hours, 44 new deaths have been reported, for an overall total of 2,830.
Putin on Monday announced the deployment of Russian troops into two separatist regions on his country’s border with Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk. Both regions have already suffered eight years of war after Russia began providing weapons, ammunition and in some cases clandestine troops to separatist rebels in 2014.
Finance Minister Selina Robinson said Tuesday a three-year climate fund will support ongoing disaster cleanup and rebuilding in southern B.C. communities hit by last November’s floods and mudslides.
The driver was identified as 32-year-old, Zachary Wagner who had active arrest warrants out of Prince Rupert, Terrace, Sunshine Coast, Fort St John and Whitehorse. Wagner was wanted for various offences some of which included assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and unauthorized possession of a firearm.
Bernier was arrested last June and charged with exceeding public gathering limits and violating Manitoba's requirement to self-isolate upon entering the province.
In Ontario, Western University, York University and the University of Guelph say they're keeping their COVID-19 vaccination and masking requirements in place for students and staff until at least the end of the current winter semester.
