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.
The federal government is vastly reducing the number of Liberal MPs present in the House of Commons due to the lightning spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. In addition, government House leader Mark Holland says all regional and national Liberal caucus meetings Wednesday will be entirely virtual.
There are 3,171 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 218,001 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 191 individuals are in hospital and 81 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
The cost of resettling Afghan refugees in Canada is expected to be $1.3 billion over six years, starting in the current fiscal year, and $66.6 million in future years. Last week, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said he expects it will take two years to fulfil the government's promise to bring 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada.
The cases are included in new infection modelling released today that also shows overall COVID-19 cases rising on Vancouver Island, driven by outbreaks at the University of Victoria and a religious gathering in the northern part of the island.
The Liberal government tapped Arbour last April to lead a detailed review and come up with better ways to address sexual assault, harassment and other misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces.
The NDP leader said Tuesday he always believed the law was discriminatory but has hardened his stance on court action following the case of a teacher in Chelsea, Que., who was reassigned because she wears a hijab.
