Political | Process

The Ontario government moved to choke off funding to convoy protesters Thursday, successfully seeking a court order preventing anyone from using the millions of dollars raised for the convoy through the fundraising platform GiveSendGo.

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• In a statement, Ivana Yelich, spokesperson for Premier Doug Ford, said the province’s attorney general brought an application in the Superior Court of Justice for an order of restraint “prohibiting any person from disposing of, or otherwise dealing with, in any manner whatsoever, any and all monetary donations made through the Freedom Convoy 2022 and Adopt-a-Trucker campaign pages on the GiveSendGo online fundraising platform.”

• The order was issued by the court Thursday afternoon.

• “It binds any and all parties with possession or control over these donations,” the statement said.

• The move was met with anger by convoy protest organizer Chris Barber, who warned it would create a backlash that would bring in more protesters.

“Bring it on. This is making it worse. It is going to blow up in their faces because we are not going anywhere.”

• He said the movement has growing support and has funds coming in from various sources.

• Barber claimed 3,000 more trucks are coming from western Canada and the court order will bring more protests.

• “Border crossings shut down. Auto plants are laying off. What do you think is going to happen?”

• Emilie Taman, one of the lawyers working on the proposed class-action lawsuit that resulted in a court injunction barring convoy truckers from honking their horns, called the restraint order involving the money raised through GiveSendGo significant.

• To get such a court order the provincial attorney general would have to satisfy a judge that indictable offences had taken place, she noted.