 | Friday, February 04, 2022 | | Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Could Ottawa seize the truck protest's money? Is GoFundMe regulated? Your questions answered | | | The truck convoy protesting vaccine mandates in Ottawa has raised large amounts of money through the U.S.-based crowdfunding platform GoFundMe. The money is supposed to go to covering fuel and other expenses for truckers protesting Canada's pandemic measures.
But the company has put a halt on disbursement of the money raised, citing concerns it may not be used in ways that comply with GoFundMe's terms of service. Here are answers to some questions CBC readers are asking about GoFundMe and the protest:
Q: Where is the money coming from?
The protest organizers have raised nearly $10.1 million from more than 120,000 donors. The identities and locations of many of those donors remain a mystery. A CBC analysis found that about one-third of donors were anonymous or used aliases. The fund also has received money from donors in other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland.
Q: Who are the fundraisers?
An organization called Canada Unity has taken responsibility for organizing the convoy. Tamara Lich and B.J. Dichter are listed by GoFundMe as the organizers of the fundraiser. Lich spoke to the media on Thursday and said the convoy will not leave Ottawa until its demand for an end to all pandemic restrictions is met.
Q: Are there rules preventing fundraising for illegal activities?
Yes — but it's not clear that the actions of the convoy protesters have violated the company's rules. The company prohibits fundraising for activities that support "hate, violence, harassment, bullying, discrimination, terrorism or intolerance of any kind."
The presence of Confederate flags and swastikas at the protest has been widely condemned, but the organizers' GoFundMe page does not make explicit reference to the promotion of hate or intolerance.
Q: Does GoFundMe make money on donations?
GoFundMe is a for-profit company but it no longer takes a cut of donations made through its website. GoFundMe still charges a 2.9 per cent fee (plus $0.30 per donation), which the company says is used to cover the cost of credit and debit transactions. They also take tips.
Q: Could money in the fund be seized to cover expenses for the City of Ottawa?
Almost certainly not, according to the company's terms. If the money is withheld from organizers, it most likely will be reimbursed to the donors.
Q: Is GoFundMe regulated in Canada?
Not explicitly — but MPs now seem interested in learning more about the company's operations. On Thursday, a parliamentary committee asked GoFundMe executives to testify about how the company avoids funding extremism and hate through its services.
Elements of this story came from audience members, like you, who got in touch with us. Send us all of your questions. We are listening: ask@cbc.ca. | | | | | The sky was dull and hypothetical and falling one cloud at a time | | |  | (Fred Thornhill/The Canadian Press) | | | | A snowshoer winds along Nogies Creek near Bobcaygeon, Ont., on Thursday following the previous night's snowfall. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | The Winter Olympic Games officially get underway this morning with an opening ceremony that comes less than six months after the Tokyo Olympic Games closed. Team Canada is fielding 215 athletes at Beijing 2022, which runs until Feb. 20. The ceremony, set to begin at 7 a.m. ET, will see Canada's flag-bearers, Charles Hamelin and Marie-Philip Poulin, lead Team Canada into the 80,000-seat National Stadium. International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said that, as of Thursday, some 2,740 athletes from around the world are in Beijing for the Games. As with the Summer Games in Tokyo last year, there will be no members of the public in the stadium for the opening ceremony — just select dignitaries. Read and watch CBC's Olympic coverage here.
Thousands of Canadians with COVID-19 who have been discharged from the ICU are struggling to regain their old lives. They’re finding challenges they did not expect — not just for their physical rehabilitation, but also for their mental health. When Anthony George woke up from a coma in an Ontario ICU last summer, he thought the worst of his COVID-19 infection was over. But he has since discovered that was just the beginning of a long road to recovery.
"I thought I could just hop out of bed and take off. Little did I know my legs were too weak to do anything. They still are.... Yeah, I'm 53 years old, but I feel like I'm 70," he said. "I could almost cry sometimes, but I just end up cursing, yelling away at myself." According to Health Canada, 21,001 patients have been admitted to ICUs across the country since the pandemic began. Nearly 2,500 (2.1 per cent) of them needed to be on ventilators. Experts say surviving any ICU stay is just the start of the journey and they worry the necessary supports won't be available in a health-care system still slammed by a pandemic. Read more about the serious consequences of long ICU stays here.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has taken a hands-off approach to the weeklong protest that has snarled downtown Ottawa, but demonstrators are set to converge on the provincial legislature in Toronto on Saturday. Ford appears to be crossing his fingers that they don't bring anywhere near the level of disruption experienced in the nation's capital, CBC's Mike Crawley writes in an analysis. "If people want to come down and protest, God bless 'em," Ford told a Hamilton radio station. "I understand their frustration. I really do." Taking a firm position on the protests is not without political risk for Ford and his Progressive Conservatives, with the provincial election less than four months away. On the one hand, his political team doesn't want him to be seen as aligned to any anti-vaccine or anti-mask sentiment. On the other hand, public frustration over the length of the pandemic, the closures and the restrictions is real. Read more of Crawley's analysis here.
It's becoming more common for police in tactical gear to barge into homes unannounced in Hamilton and the regional municipality of Halton in Ontario, according to new data obtained by CBC News. No-knock raids are supposed to be rare. By law, officers usually must knock on the door of a residence, identify themselves as police, and wait for someone to answer before executing a search warrant. In the Halton region, however, the number of no-knocks from 2019 to 2020 almost doubled. In Hamilton, there was a 25 per cent increase during that period. The data CBC News has gone through also shows Hamilton and Halton raids have injured two officers and six civilians since 2019. Researchers and activists reacting to the newly obtained statistics say they're concerned about the militarization of policing and are calling for more oversight and transparency. But police services say no-knocks make situations safer. Halton police said in a statement the rise in local no-knock raids was due to more situations that were deemed high risk or that could lead to the destruction of evidence. Hamilton police Supt. Marty Schulenberg said the rise in such raids locally is because of an "alarming increase" in the number of guns being found on city streets. Read more about no-knock raids here.
Now for some good news to start your Friday: Random acts of kindness are bringing warmth to the Winnipeg winter. When Oluwaseun Odeyemi's neighbour began clearing the snow in front of her and her husband's house, the unexpected act helped build for them a sense of belonging. The Nigerian-born Winnipeggers are capable of shovelling themselves, but Mark Hutcheson kept beating them to it. At first, they thought it was the city or government doing it, Odeyemi said, but it kept happening until one day they saw Hutcheson in their driveway with his snowblower. "I believe that it's something that I should do just to help people out ... I have a snowblower, and for the few minutes out of my day to help someone, it's pretty easy to do," Hutcheson said. Odeyemi calls him and his wife "God-sent angels." Read about this and two other simple acts of kindness in the city here. | | | OPINION | Every high school student should have to take a philosophy course | | | | Education is how we help our society progress and tackle the issues of polarization and misinformation. Having students take a philosophy course in high school is a vital first step, writes high school student Nasima Fancy. Read the opinion piece here. | | | | |  | Recordings reveal duelling realities of trucker protests | Protesting truckers and their supporters have been communicating via a walkie-talkie app called Zello.
On the show today, we bring you the sound of their actual conversations, which reveal a wide gulf between how they see themselves and how their critics view them.
Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: Feb. 4 | | | 1789: George Washington is elected as first president of the United States.
1945: The Allied leaders meet at Yalta, in Crimea, to plan the final defeat of Nazi Germany. The conference includes Britain's Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt of the U.S. and the Soviet Union's Josef Stalin. Their plan calls for Allied occupation of Germany, the collection of war reparations and the founding of the United Nations.
1970: A Liberian-registered oil tanker runs aground and splits in two in Chedabucto Bay, N.S., spilling more than 15,000 tonnes of bunker oil. An inquiry blamed improper navigation by the "Arrow."
1998: British Columbia becomes the first jurisdiction in North America to give gay and lesbian couples the same privileges as heterosexuals for child support, custody and access.
2013: The Royal Canadian Mint officially ceases distribution of the penny to Canada's financial institutions. | | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | |  | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news
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