Financial institutions have moved quickly to freeze the accounts of certain individuals with ties to the trucker convoy, blockades, and protests after Ottawa announced that crowdfunding platforms will now have to comply with Canada’s financial reporting rules, and is authorizing banks to freeze accounts of suspects they believe to be involved in the “illegal blockades.”
On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland gave notice to GoFundMe and GiveSendGo that if they wish to operate in Canada, they must immediately register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).
This move is part of the Emergency Act that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked on Monday. The act defines a national emergency as a temporary “urgent and critical situation” that “seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it.”
As Freeland explained on Monday – “This is about following the money. This is about stopping the financing of these illegal blockades. We are today serving notice: if your truck is being used in these illegal blockades, your corporate accounts will be frozen.”
The law also allows banks to target for account closure donors to the GoFundMe and the GiveSendGo fundraising campaigns that fuelled this protest. Freeland said she wouldn’t get into the “specifics of whose accounts are being frozen.”
The new regulations apply to platforms that raise funds or virtual currency through donations, as well as payment and clearing services—whether dealing in regular currency or cryptocurrency.
And on Thursday morning, Freeland gave a final warning to the assembled protesters, saying those who have their big rigs on Ottawa’s streets will see their insurance canceled and their corporate accounts suspended – a move that could make it difficult for these drivers to ever work again.
Many financial institutions are acting like freezing someone’s funds is new to them, and they say the government hasn’t told them whose accounts to freeze.
Caldwell Securities, an investment-advisory firm that operates in Ontario, hasn’t received any communication from the government or law enforcement, nor a list of people whose accounts it’s supposed to freeze, Chairman Thomas Caldwell said Wednesday.
“If this thing is to be implemented, it will begin and end at the banking level,” Caldwell said in an interview. “I can’t see it getting down to our level. I would be quite surprised.”
“The censorship of money is something we see in an authoritarian country, not one like Canada,” said Philippe Jette, senior consultant to the Rivemont Crypto Fund. “Regardless of my views on the protests, freezing accounts for political reasons is a big, big slippery slope.”
