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.
Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, wrote in an annual report on the state of public health in the country that the pandemic has exposed long-standing cracks in the system.
Special weather statements have been issued by Environment Canada including the Cariboo, West Columbia and Williston regions, with a prediction of 10 to 20 centimetres of snow starting Friday night.
Police say preliminary reports into the crash on Wednesday indicate the driver of the vehicle lost control, slammed through a fence and landed in the in-ground pool.
Politicians jet-setting to different vacation destinations drew much attention last year as federal and provincial governments told Canadians to forgo their travel and gathering plans to combat rising COVID-19 caseloads.
Early data suggests Omicron is more transmissible than the currently dominant Delta variant, with a doubling time of about two days. British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix says the province is considering further public health orders on public and private gatherings, with an announcement expected next week.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first pledged the quick reaction force to a future UN mission while hosting an international peacekeeping summit in Vancouver in 2017, yet the Liberal government has yet to make good on the promise.
