Help Canadian truckers at the border: LifeFunder.com
OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) – Canadian truckers protesting federal vaccine mandates have raised almost $1 million in Bitcoin donations since being de-platformed by GoFundMe last week.
Partnering with the truckers, a group of Canadian Bitcoin enthusiasts using the moniker “HonkHonk Hodl” has used a cryptocurrency crowdfunding website called Tallycoin to bring in $908,825 CAD from 4,836 donors at the time of publishing.
“Legacy financial infrastructure can sometimes be politicized and clamped down upon, whereas Bitcoin is a truly censorship-resistant method of communicating value,” the group wrote on Tallycoin.
“Don’t allow your voices to be silenced, and don’t allow your financial sovereignty to be trampled upon,” they added.
The truckers also released a video from Ottawa explaining why they are using Bitcoin to accept donations.
“We have a really clear financial objective for the freedom convoy and that is to receive global donations from individuals who want to support the convoy in their stand for freedom, and we need to be able to do that without any obstruction,” said Bitcoin team-lead for the truckers, ‘Nick‘.
“And so, as we’ve learned from GoFundMe, when you use a third-party platform to receive funds from donors, it creates a critical vulnerability through censorship, whether that’s the company itself or whether that’s governments or municipalities pressuring those companies… It can put things in jeopardy,” he continued.
“And what we’re learning is that, even if we use a third-party donation platform that isn’t a choke point and won’t censor us, the Canadian banking system is actually also a critical vulnerability because of the government control, so if we open a bank account there is still ‘Big Brother’ that can go there and have that shut down.”
Nick added: “It’s a global financial network that is uncensorable, permission-less and, when you custody it properly, it’s unconfiscatable.”
The Bitcoin team said the power of cryptocurrencies were seen in the many donations accepted by truckers from around the world, with the convoy even receiving a donation from a doctor in Nigeria.
“He did so without asking anyone permission; it could not be stopped and he basically did it for free – a fraction of a fraction of a penny is what it cost him to send that.”
Truckers in the Freedom Convoy have meanwhile been supported to the tune of $8,287,676 USD on GiveSendGofollowing their controversially de-platforming by crowdfunding giant GoFundMe last Friday. Approximately $7,782,000 USD had been raised for the truckers on the website.
In canceling the Freedom Convoy’s fundraiser, GoFundMe had said they would reimburse only those donors who applied for refunds, and that the company planned to give the rest to “credible and established charities.” However, following a public outcry, they were quickly forced into giving automatic refunds to all donors.
The company said: “GoFundMe supports peaceful protests, and we believe that was the intention of the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser when it was first created… We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.”
Despite these claims of violence, the Freedom Convoy has been peaceful. One Ottawa resident who spends time near Parliament said that he has seen “no violence or harassment” and that he could “walk about freely and safely.”
Canadian lawyer Nicholas Wansbutter said that there “is no factual basis” to support the narrative that the Freedom Convoy has brought violence to Ottawa.
Before the fundraiser was dropped by the woke crowdfunding platform, the funds were frozen. Convoy spokeswoman and organizer Tamara Lich told reporters that the group had been working hard with GoFundMe to work out the “legal details” of disbursing such a massive sum of money.
Justice Centre for Charter Freedoms lawyer Keith Wilson, who has been hired by the Freedom Convoy, said at the press conference that they “welcomed” the “heightened caution” that GoFundMe was exercising given the circumstances.
Nonetheless, the Freedom Convoy fundraiser was dropped Friday.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who supports the truckers and Canadian freedom, tweeted his intent to have GoFundMe investigated for “deceptive practices.”
It is a fraud for @gofundme to commandeer $9M in donations sent to support truckers and give it to causes of their own choosing.
I will work with @AGAshleyMoody to investigate these deceptive practices — these donors should be given a refund.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) February 5, 2022
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that he had assembled a team to investigate the “BLM-backing company” that “went woke.”
Patriotic Texans donated to Canadian truckers’ worthy cause using GoFundMe. This BLM-backing company went woke, froze the funds, & failed to deliver Texans’ money. Today I assembled a team to investigate their potential fraud & deception. Texas donors will get Justice! #GoFundMe
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) February 5, 2022
Elon Musk reacted to the news by intimating that GoFundMe were thieves.
It’s not my money pic.twitter.com/IKRxhGo8wS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2022