Trudeau Unleashes Terrorist Financing Rules on Freedom Convoy’s Crowdfunding and Cryptocurrency Funds
Part of the rage being directed at the truckers by Canada’s current leadership is that the protesters are willing to innovate and are very successful at it.
Among the many loathsome aspects of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “Emergencies Act” is targeting any funding for the protesters by broadening its anti-money-laundering rules to cover crowdsourcing sites, utilizing practices designed to protect against the financing of terrorism.
…Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the new powers give institutions the ability to freeze corporate accounts and cancel insurance tied to trucks that are being used in the blockades.
“The government is issuing an order with immediate effect under the Emergencies Act, authorizing Canadian financial institutions to temporarily cease providing financial services where the institution suspects that an account is being used to further the illegal blockades and occupations,” she said. “This order covers both personal and corporate accounts.”
Crowdfunding and payment service providers, which are being used to raise funds for the protests, will have to register with Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, the country’s main monitor for money laundering and terrorist financing, “and they must report large and suspicious transactions,” Freeland said.
“The illegal blockades have highlighted the fact that crowdfunding platforms and some of the payment service providers they use are not fully captured under the proceeds of crime and terrorist financing act,” she said, adding that the changes announced Monday “cover all forms of transactions, including digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies.”
Trudeau deputy prime minister: “We are broadening the scope of Canada’s anti money laundering laundering and terrorist financing rules so that they cover crowd funding platforms" pic.twitter.com/chMa1iaWCt
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 14, 2022
Part of the rage being directed at the truckers by Canada’s current leadership is that the protesters are willing to innovate and utilize new approaches in finding workarounds to logistical problems.
For example, the Toronto-Dominion (TD) Bank froze two personal bank accounts, one of which included C$1.4 million ($1.1 million), that were being used to support the Freedom Convoy protesters who are pushing back against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 procedures.
The decision to freeze the accounts was confirmed by a spokesperson for the bank in a statement, according to a report from Reuters.
The move, according to the statement, came after TD applied to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice this week about taking funds sent through bank transfers and GoFundMe and giving them to the intended recipients or returning them to the donors “who have requested refunds but whose entitlement to a refund cannot be determined by TD.”
The outlet reported that one bank account received C$1 million through GoFundMe and the rest was sent to a second account through a variety of bank transfers. The spokesperson said TD is unsure of where the GoFundMe payment originated.
If the Trudeau government thought the truckers would easily roll over by any of the tactics they thought would work, they are in for a surprise. To begin with, the truckers are taking the bank to court.
TD has been put “on notice that their actions are improper and disappointing,” Keith Wilson, a lawyer for the convoy, said in an email on Saturday, adding the convoy will seek a court order next week to release the donations to a new not-for-profit corporation that has been set up to manage and distribute them.
Interestingly, prior to Trudeau’s odious move, the Freedom Convoy had just begun turning to cryptocurrency to fuel the movement in a supremely successful manner.
Vancouver entrepreneur Jeff Booth said he does not like being called an “organizer” for the funding going toward the self-described freedom convoy protests. And he insists he’s not a “facilitator” either.
But Mr. Booth said he helped create a Bitcoin wallet that has helped channel donations toward those demonstrations. More than $500,000 has been raised through the wallet so far.
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr. Booth said he believes in freedom of speech and his entire family is double-vaccinated against COVID-19. He also “understands both points of view” about pandemic restrictions across Canada, which he believes were “right at first.” And he said he’s not a COVID-19 denier.
“I’m a keyholder for this – that’s it,” he said. “I haven’t raised a dollar. I haven’t donated a dollar of my own and I’m not an organizer. I am just a keyholder in a decentralized platform … I could be replaced by anyone tomorrow. Tomorrow, there could be 10 people.”
It is being reported that 2 cryptos funds had successfully raised close to $1 Million in censorship-resistant digital assets….that appears to be up for grabs by the Trudeau government under its harsh orders.
[T]wo cryptocurrency funds have successfully completed their goals, as one fundraiser has raised 100 bitcoin cash (BCH) and another raised 21 bitcoin (BTC). 29 contributors donated the bitcoin cash worth over $32K today, using current BCH exchange rates.
The BTC fundraiser for 21 bitcoin went over the goal amount, with 21.75133856 BTC worth $932K raised by 5,318 contributors. One contributor donated 5 BTC worth more than $214K at press time, and wrote: “The grasp of the tyrants is waning”.
Reports from Toronto’s CTV News indicate that Canadian officials are well aware of the cryptocurrency crowdfunding efforts dedicated to the Freedom Convoy’s truckers. Documents filed in an Ontario court, verify Ottawa Police are monitoring the cryptocurrency fundraising techniques. One officer in Canada reportedly spoke about the crypto fundraising in an affidavit. Erica Pimentel of Queens University explained to Toronto’s CTV News reporter Jon Woodward that the crypto fundraising could very well become a mainstay.
“I think bitcoin is going to become the currency of social movements. And they are going to be playing international whack-a-mole trying to stand in the way of those transactions,” Pimentel remarked to Woodward during her interview.
I suspect that Trudeau’s actions are going to backfire loud enough for the entire country of Canada to hear.
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You know who this hurts the most? Neil Young….we now know he has been a fraud for 54 years.
Relevant meme.
Does Castreau look like a pathetic French bozo in the 17th century,
http://www.cruiseshipdrummer.com/2014/02/tempoze.html
– or more like Marie Antoinette?
What a loser!
Tin soldiers and Justin coming, they’ve finally shown their hand.
Surely Neil Young could finish this if he was sincere.
The takeaway is Justin has nothing to do with justice.
To be fair, the 60’s rebels had a war to avoid, and they did receive a ‘normal’ educatoin. The minds of the modern young have been turned into jelly, and they have NEVER had to struggle with ANYTHING, let alone getting shipped off to Vietnam.
Nonetheless, how in hell did Neil Young become one of the modern young? By becoming Marie Antoinette with a guitar.
The option of simply allowing the truckers to cross the border without the proof of the bioweapon shot is apparently not on the table. It should be clear to any person that this is about power and control and has nothing to do with health. Clearly, freedom is the enemy. Proponents of a basic human right (freedom) are defined as terrorists, Is there any doubt that Trudeau and his handlers see this as war?
This will end peacefully only if the four players (politicians, military, police, citizens) all align on either freedom or slavery. If the politicians and the citizens do not align, then the military and police must choose sides with consequences both in this world and the next.
Covid has always been about power and control.
MAINLY, about getting Trump out of office.
Apparently peaceful protest against the government is now terrorism and is no longer allowed. This will end in either dictatorship or violence. Canada’s descent has been breathtaking. It should serve as a lesson for us all.
As stated, little Fidel could not do this if he did not have the backing of at least a sizable minority of the people and the national police, intelligence, and military.
Freedom is dependent upon the virtue of the people. If that fails, all other things follow.
The raw hypocrisy between the response to this peaceful protest and the response to the repeated violent destructive protests of BLM is astounding.
Canadian politicians need to ask their constituents which of those ought to be labelled ‘terrorism’.
America’s strain of youth are VIOLENT, ANGRY AND DANGEROUS, CRIME IS WAY UP ALL OVER! In Canada, ALL I SAW WAS PEACEFUL! SMILING, SINGING DANCING CREATING A DEMONSTRATION GANDHI AND KING WOULD BE PROUD OF! I AM PROUD OF CANADA, AN AWESOME PEOPLE!
“The illegal blockades have highlighted the fact that crowdfunding platforms and some of the payment service providers they use are not fully captured under the proceeds of crime and terrorist financing act,” she said, adding that the changes announced Monday “cover all forms of transactions, including digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies.”
Isn’t it just awe-inspiring how quickly they can make laws…
when it benefits them?
What laws? I don’t recall Parliament being involved.
Trudeau has threatened to seize bank accounts of people who are suspected of donating $25 or more to the Freedom Convoy. When does the bank run in Canada begin?
Not soon enough.
Actually, people sympathetic to the trucker movement are urging citizens to cause bank runs in response to this crackdown, so maybe mid-week.
What’s ironic is that if someone asked me to make a “bank run” tomorrow, I would have next to no trouble. I’d be getting exactly as much return on my money from my mattress as I do now from my bank.
That’s actually a great idea. It’s something we can all do. Nothing would get the establishment’s attention faster than a national bank run. They could shut down the banks but that would solve nothing.
If this is how they plan to impose the “Big Reset” where “you will own nothing and be happy”, their house of cards will collapse very quickly. Or the tanks will start rolling. In either case, the guessing will be over. This IS a authoritarian takeover. Better to know that now when we still have a chance to stop it.
Bank runs would mean nothing now. They would just make electronic payments. They could refuse you cash and place credits on your credit card, or simply ask where you want the cask transferred to. Money is not even printed anymore. It’s just created by a guy hitting the “0” button on a keyboard in DC. The federal reserve could flood the banks with unlimited money. Sure, cash notes and coin could run out, but they are trying to get rid of that anyway. My last point is that the people are impoverished now in any event, and largely have no money in a bank to withdraw. In fact, they owe more to the bank than they have assets, and the bank could call these loans (pay me $400,000 now or your collateral, that is, your house, is mine) or cut off your unsecured credit so you cannot buy basic items because that is all anyone uses anymore to conduct business. (Don’t bundle your banking, credit cards, and mortgages from the same provider!)
You have no idea how subjugated you are. We have traded our autonomy and freedom for convenience. But at least you have your cell phone to stare at all day.
We need to break up the big banks, big tech, big government, big everything.
@sirbraverobin: Not so. Bitcoin is transacted via blockchain which is immune from government interference. Sure, the governments can turn off the electricity but then everything comes to a stop.
Also, banks in hostile countries with governments that cannot be trusted will go offshore. That is how backwards countries with no domestic economies become wealth havens. If the Davos Club for Globalists succeeded in centralizing all economies under a world government, it would create the need for the biggest and most efficient underground banking system ever.
The first thing you learn in international banking is that money is fungible. You don’t have to load a galleon with gold anymore to move money. It is all on the books somewhere. Building a better mouse trap creates smarter mice.
“Bitcoin is transacted via blockchain which is immune from government interference.”
Not sure why this is continually repeated when it is manifestly false. Many governments have seized and confiscated Bitcoin since as early as 2017, and they are only getting better at it.
An easy way to get your Bitcoin is to simply put you in jail until you share your wallet with them. If you need a little physical encouragement, too, I am sure they will also oblige.
If the government wants your Bitcoin, they will get your Bitcoin.
Do they have to try harder to get it as opposed to other assets? Perhaps, but as Bitcoin wades into more common use, you can bet they will figure out and become more adept at monitoring and controlling its use to include outright confiscation.
Noting in the electronic and virtual world is secure – nothing.
I’ve always dreamed of using Fidel Castro’s illegitimate son as a footstool, which is what’ll happen if he tries to touch my bank accounts.
So what happens when the truckers have had enough and simply stop delivering goods anywhere in Canada? Within a few days grocery store shelves will be bare and the population starving. In a battle with the truckers, Trudeau will lose and lose big.
At this point, Trudeau is hoping for a surrender. His weapon is fear. No deliveries would shut down the country in a couple of days. I think gasoline/diesel is delivered every day. Trudeau knows he would be blamed.
Tyrants calculate. They do not understand people who stand on principles where there is no calculation, only passion and honor. and faith in God.
Fine, the truckers should go home. Park their Rigs and wait for Ottawa and certain cities figure out how to get their food.
Now we know why large underground economies exist. They are necessary. When “freedom” is based on deception and corruption, there is a more efficient alternative.
It is ironic that despite the vast power of Silicon Valley to limit or even turn off our abilities to function whether it be finance, transportation, communication etc…, the most effective communication medium turns out to be honking trucks.
Like our professor said yesterday, now we know where the power really lies. It took truckers to force the corrupt dictators running the “free” world to drop their masks. That hasn’t happened since the stolen 2024 election.
#meantweets2024 #honkforTrump
Correction: stolen 2020 election
Foreshadowing….
2020 wasn’t stolen, keep ignoring reality and trying to push the right wing equivalent of Russia gate and keep losing.
If you want a win follow Glenn Youngkin in accepting the results of the 2020 elections. No proof of any state being stolen by fraud has surfaced since the election, and the Kraken doesn’t live in America it lives in the North Sea.
Danny,
To an extent that is good advice; Biden is President and we all have to live with that reality. As to proof well sure no specific proof but certainly a large number of irregular practices, some of which are absolutely illegal did in fact occur and seemed to cut one direction.
IMO the 2020 election shouldn’t be the focus in 2022 or 2024. However, ongoing efforts to bar the irregular practices adopted in 2020 shouldn’t be denigrated as broadly as you seem to be doing. Nothing will change the result of 2020 but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t closely examine the irregular practices used that deviated from the procedures mandated by the State legislatures and institute measures to increase ballot security and increase the transparancy and integrity of the elections process to restore public confidence based on that examination.
I am a supporter of the Georgia Texas and other state laws that brought the voting rules either back to pre-2020 or made new rules (frankly I would have gone farther than Georgia did but that is besides the point).
That doesn’t make the stolen election claims right though, we already lost the senate by making those claims and running on those for the Jan 5th Georgia elections. The people making the claims also seem to hate Brian Kemp the man who actually just passed voter security for Georgia elections.
The claim that we aren’t free because the 2020 elections were stolen (Pasadena Phil’s claim which I was responding to) isn’t just untrue in my opinion but unlike most partisan claims that fail the truth meter is one that helps Democrats.
There is no way to keep beating the voter fraud stole the election bandwagon without also saying so don’t vote (as we found Jan 5th when we lost the senate).
The biggest shenanigan also had nothing to do with government but with big tech censorship making the election unfair. Big tech censorship is an issue that has flown under the radar ever since the voter fraud claims came in because ultimately the stolen election claims is an alternative to addressing more real issues.
Well to start with…
Its a safe bet ( and widely believed) that the same fraud put those 2 in the senate here.
Kemp is mostly despised because of his interference with the election audit and backing down.
I don’t know what “unfair’ means or actually translates into but there is more than enough probable cause and reasonable evidence to shore up the claim this election ( 2020) was in fact stolen by a well organized and coordinated effort.
“absolutely illegal did in fact occur and seemed to cut one direction.” Correct the number of Republicans being investigated or convicted for fraud is pretty high. In fact at the time of writing on the link below only Republicans have been convicted of election fraud.
https://www.thebulwark.com/the-pattern-of-gop-voter-fraud/
Gosh, I’m confused. Perhaps someone can explain to me how two weeks of extraordinarily peaceful protests is damaging to the Canadian economy and adversely affecting the health, safety, and welfare of Canadian citizens, but lockdowns and forced participation in an illegal experiment was just hunky dory.
I don’t quite understand.
Because we are all racist phobia-phobic phobiphobes or Trump or something.
You are not supposed to understand. No thinking and reasoning allowed. The State will brand you as ‘dangerous’.
Your mistake was attempting to apply logic to the situation. Now pipe down and comply. :p
So they can lock your bank accounts at will.
They assume any amount of cash you have over a couple of hundred dollars is drug money and will therefore confiscate it until you can prove it is not drug money.
The government can make you essentially bankrupt in a moment and not just in Canaduh but also here in the good old USA as well.
The IRS can freeze every bank account you have (and look how fair they were to right-wing non-profits a few years back).
People have also had all their money confiscated for making cash deposits that are deemed to be “structuring”. A guy ran a restaurant, and the insurance company made it clear it would be better if he kept his cash on hand under $10,000. So he made regular deposits just under $10,000 (and paid his taxes correctly, and everything else was above-board and legal), and the money was confiscated by the gubment for “structuring”.
This is why it is important to protect our constitutions ban on attainder and bill of pains, and why the Maddison Cawthorn persecution is so important the left is trying to make the supreme court that part of the constitution no longer relevant.
Wow. First time comment.
Is this going to end up with government tyranny, an outbreak of government violence and the fallout of that, a total breakdown in the midst of a general strike?
I am not one who thinks of the vaccines as some stealth technology, just an overhyped experiment with too much hubris attached,
But this is getting to be analogous to the infamous mark of the beast in revelation, you have to have it to buy or sell, to earn a livelihood, even the banks will freeze (essentially confiscate) your money.
Never saw this coming a month ago.
I’ve watched an activist/scientist/?? talking about the human condition and how nice it would be to pacify the human animal to make him more docile. through genetic manipulation, vectored by virus if necessary. Maybe the Eco-Aliance guy? cant recall. But it’s nothing the greentards haven’t wished for. The new new communist man or something.
One of those ‘vaccines’ are mRNA in a lipid coat that modifies the operation of a cell but not the DNA. The other is a hacked virus, which modifies the DNA. That’s what this whole thing was about. Getting that out there.
“It was the Pax………”
I’ve been vaccinated and hate tyranny as much as I always have. When am I supposed to start hanging up a Joe Biden poster on my wall?
Right after you purchase a Lava Lamp and black light.
firefly reference is always a propos….
Are you talking about this video?
It will be interesting to see what effect this has on the Canadian economy, particularly if the truckers strike. Like the moribund Canadian health care system, the financial sector is kind of dodgy and not very robust. It can’t absorb the negative effects of this totalitarian crackdown on human rights.
So what percentage of truckers support this?
This is all about power, who blinks first, at what cost will each side persist. Who will miscalculate and what will be the consequences.
And it appears much of the world is watching, while perhaps even more are oblivious or misinformed.
To pick up on a previous comment on a related thread…
“Step out of line, they’ll come and take you away…”
I’ve seen a suggestion elsewhere and it may or may not be more effective.
All the truckers should quietly return home, park their trucks, and disable them. And wait. It may be more disconcerting to see no trucks anywhere and watch the shelves empty and the fuel stations run dry.
Everyone ought to re-watch V for Vendetta. That film used a government manufactured disease to lock-down the society, disappearing anyone who dared stand up. John Hurt played the dictator and did a fine job. It was made years ago but seems more like a commentary on current events.
Hmm, Also the revolutionary war observation that they should hang together now or would assuredly hang separately later. How to force a vote of no-confidence….?
They would need to disable the trucks. The government would send in the army to confiscate and drive them.
However, disablement, as opposed to destruction, would simply delay their use after confiscation as the army could also repair them. And the army has trucks of their own. Not as good an efficient, but they have them, and could move a good deal of cargo on their own. And then there are Democrat governors across the border who may lend out their National Guard assets, too.
Are their laws to prohibit any of this? Who cares? Milhouse does. Be he is likely the last one.
The Supreme Court would care about military assets literally being sent to another country by order of a governor without approval from a sitting president of the United States.
Unless of course the president steps in…
Why? If they just loaned out vehicles controlled by the state guard. They belong to the governor of the state until federalized. The president would have to federalize the assets to bring them under his control and then recall them. You think this president will do that?
And go ahead and file your complaint in court. You will learn you have no standing. And supposing a court somehow found you had standing everything will be long over within the 10 years it will take to wind up to the Supreme Court for consideration.
Governors haven’t had authority to have a separate foreign policy ever, and have had their authority over the national guard limited since the civil war.
If Biden does it that is his foreign and military policy, if a governor does it that is a governor taking a military asset away from the United States government.
It also wouldn’t be me, Biden would more than likely take any governor having a separate foreign policy than he does to court and win.
If Biden would want to lend trucks he will, if not he is not going to permit governors to use their national guard in another country (unless the orders have his name and authority in it).
“Governors haven’t had authority to have a separate foreign policy ever,”
I am not sure how lending state assets to another country is practicing foreign policy. The governor manifestly has the authority to direct the movement of National Guard assets under title 32 USC. The federal government has no authority over these assets until federalized and placed under title 10 USC. However, if these assets are lost from an accountability point of view, then either the individual guardsman who lost accountability or the state is responsible for the cost of that loss, which is the acquisition cost of the item.
There are numerous compacts between states and provinces in Canada for mutual assistance and cooperation across a range of issues such as the Pacific Northwest Emergency Management Arrangement between Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington state, the governments of the Provinces of British Columbia and the Yukon in which “The authorities of each signatory may seek the advice, cooperation or assistance of any other signatory in any civil emergency matter.”
Then there is the Northern Emergency Management Assistance Compact which allows the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, to participate in cross-border mutual assistance for preparedness and response with any or all of the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan. The compact allows additional states and provinces to join upon execution or adoption.
So, yes, a governor could send National Guard assets to Canada. Absolutely.
Ah going full assh*le eh Truedummy? That certainly won’t come back to bite you in the behind! Hope the truckers continue to stand firm and not back down to this latest move!
I’m expecting a cat and mouse game. Trudeau’s crackdown is being sold as a short-term program limited to specific geographic areas. So the truckers play whack-a-mole by pulling out of the crackdown areas and moving to the friendly states back and forth. How long will that last? Trudeau has lost any chance of holding on to his political power for much longer. At some point, he will be taken down by his own party and that is already showing signs of being in the works. It only makes sense since he is apparently taking orders from FJB. It’s all falling apart for Tru-d’oh!
It’s amazing how quickly ‘stable democracies’ can devolve into tyrannical authoritarianism. The behavior of Trudeau should shock the conscience of anyone who has even a passing familiarity with how democracies unravel.
There are times when comparison to 1938 Germany aren’t apt. This is NOT one of those times. Trudeau is reading from the very same playbook that Lenin, Hitler and his father, Fidel Castro read from with great success.
Great comment.
Trudeau sure is a tough guy.
This decision to invoke emergency powers and intervene in financial and insurance services is foolish. It’s a deliberately provocative escalation that has the potential to widen protests v govt. Even if successful short term it will harm govt long term.
Hopefully enough MPs from his own party decide fascism isn’t their ideology and therefore little Mussolini needs to be stopped from granting himself absolute powers to crush a protest movement.
The reason I say that is authoritarian governments tend to provide stability and don’t tend to go anywhere (Putin in Russia for example). If parliament sustains this there is very little that can’t be done.
Authoritarianism works, it is why defending free republics from alternatives ranging from democracy (real democracy which is not and since Athens has not been the government of any country) to fascism or communism.
Authoritarian govt can work when the govt is already in a position to dictate terms. Here, the govt is seeking to establish that power so it’s not clear if this can be sustained.
In this instance, IMO, the govt is provoking a backlash. What form that takes and the timing are TBD. After all the point of the original convoy was in response to previous policies that were viewed as unacceptably heavy handed, now the govt has opened a new front by widening the scope and severity of it’s heavy handed policies.
Bottom line is the govt has now made every Canadian a potential resistor by threatening banking, insurance and licensing. IMO the scope of this will cause many more people to not only question the policies of the Canadian govt but pushback.
You are definitely right about potential for backlash and that they are establishing instead of sustaining authoritarianism, that said the best case scenario would be parliament tells the little fascist that this isn’t who we are.
Yep. “Sorry, can’t pay you all this month as the Government has frozen our bank accounts.”
Let alone the only reasonable responses to people being unable to feed their children due to the Government taking all their money.
The insurance side is a little scary. The market for truckers is already a shit show.
Honestly the best thing right now would be a national strike with US truckers showing solidarity of not shipping across the border.
How long can the insurance companies go without income? If you aren’t insuring me I’m not paying you. Plus I’m not sure it’s actually legal for the insurance companies to refuse to insure because taking my money without delivering what was promised is fraud.
We all ought to be exceptionally grateful Trudeau is doing all this.
One of the main contributors to the way things are today (here and in Canada) is the “complacency” and snoozing of the sheeple.
Many sheeple never dreamed this was possible; didn’t think they were that evil and so forth.
If these acts (on both sides of the border) serve as a reality check and a wake up call to what the left is really after- then this is a good thing.
As an example of the lengths a western democratic (small d) govt would employ sure. This and the Australian example has very likely caused more people to reexamine their previously held notions about what can and can not happen in their own Nation. Very educational.
So a political opponent of Trudeau and all their supporters can now easily be classified as terrorists…subject to loss of all funds, donated and personal and being jailed.