Co-founder of Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo says his company would allow fundraising for KKK if activity was legal

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A co-founder of a U.S. Christian website that helped facilitate Canadian convoy fundraising efforts told a parliamentary committee that his website would allow the Ku Klux Klan to raise money through the platform, if the activity was legal.

During questioning from Liberal MP Pam Damoff Thursday, Jacob Wells of GiveSendGo was asked if he would allow a fundraiser for the white supremacist group on his site.

“If the fundraising activity was legal, and it was legally authorized to have happen, we would allow people to fundraise,” he said.

Parliamentarians are looking at the impacts of the convoy from different angles in the aftermath of the blockade of many downtown streets in Ottawa for more than three weeks. The situation in part led to the Liberal government invoking the never-before used Emergencies Act. Municipal and provincial states of emergency were also triggered.

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Ms. Damoff also asked Mr. Wells on Thursday if the Proud Boys, deemed a terrorist entity in Canada, would still be allowed to fundraise on GiveSendGo. He said if individuals or organizations are legally authorized, then “yes, we would allow them to fundraise.”

When Ms. Damoff asked if GiveSendGo had hate provisions, Mr. Wells said there are plenty of terms that guide how his organization operates.

“We believe completely to the core of our being that the danger of the suppression of speech is much more dangerous than the speech itself,” he said.

Mr. Wells’s website became a main portal for convoy donations after the fundraising website GoFundMe cancelled efforts on its site that had raised more than $10-million. Leaked data for the largest online fundraising campaign supporting the Ottawa protests revealed that tens of thousands of Canadian and American donors have collectively contributed millions of dollars to the demonstrations.

Mr. Wells confirmed Thursday that approximately 60 per cent of donations originated from Canada and 37 per cent from the United States. He said that most of the donations were under $100.

GoFundMe President Juan Benitez told the House of Commons public-safety committee on Thursday that 88 per cent of funds that were provided to the convoy’s fundraising effort came from Canada and 86 per cent of donors were from this country.

Kim Wilford, who serves as general counsel for GoFundMe, told MPs that when the convoy’s campaign was created it complied with the fundraising company’s terms of service.

She said teams at GoFundMe were constantly reviewing information and it reached out to Ottawa Police in response to a statement made by the service on Jan. 31. She said the convoy fundraising effort was removed from their platform on Feb. 4.

The original GoFundMe page was started by Tamara Lich, formerly a member of the governing council of the separatist Maverick Party from Alberta.

A special review committee will be examining what happened in Ottawa and the use of the Emergencies Act. On Wednesday evening, a motion passed in the House of Commons on its composition. It will include four members of the Senate and seven members of the House: three Liberal MPs, two Conservatives and one member each from the Bloc Québécois and NDP. The committee will also have three chairs: one from the Bloc, one from the NDP and one determined by the Senate.

Separately, there will be an inquiry initiated on the use of the never-before-used legislation. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said it will begin within 60 days and it could look at issues such as policing, as well as the “funding, influence and disinformation that supported the illegal blockades and occupations, both foreign and domestic.”

Conservative House Leader John Brassard said Thursday that the government sought out extraordinary powers through the act, so it is his view that “extraordinary oversight and scrutiny is required.”

NDP House Leader Peter Julian said once the Emergencies Act was put in place, police appeared to be effective. However, there was prior a perception from many quarters regarding how convoy protesters were responded to by officers compared with Indigenous and racialized demonstrators. He also noted the need to explore issues such as the involvement of white supremacists and “ugly, racist tones of the convoy.”

Scott Tannas, a member of the Canadian Senators Group, has served notice of a motion proposing that the Senate create its own review committee that is entirely separate from both the joint committee and the inquiry required under the Emergencies Act.

In an interview, Mr. Tannas said he came up with the proposal after watching the partisan feuding in the House over the nature and leadership of the joint committee.

“So we thought, let’s put this forward, a kind of a calm, reasonable proposal for senators to consider two weeks down the road if things don’t go well [with the joint committee],” he said.

Mr. Tannas said he has yet to see any details on the proposed format of the inquiry that is called for in the Emergencies Act.

“I hope it is truly independent,” he said.

A spokesperson for Senator Marc Gold, who represents the government in the Senate, said in a statement that Mr. Gold is reviewing Mr. Tannas’s motion “and looks forward to hearing the views of other senators.”

Senator Raymonde Saint-Germain, the facilitator for the Independent Senators Group, said a Senate-only committee could be “pure duplication” and questioned whether such an approach would be a sound use of the Senate’s public funds.

With reports from Tom Cardoso in Toronto

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