TD Bank Freezes 2 Bank Accounts Supporting Canadian Protests

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) has frozen two personal bank accounts that had C$1.4 million deposited to support protesters of the Canadian government’s pandemic measures, a report from Reuters said.

The demonstrations are called the Freedom Convoy and consist of Canadian truckers who are against vaccine mandates for cross-border travel.

The protests are entering their third week, having gridlocked the capital of Ottawa and also blocked border crossings between the U.S. and Canada, affecting trade between the two.

TD has applied to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to take the funds, which had been sent through GoFundMe and bank transfers. That means those funds can either be sent to the intended recipients or returned to the donors “who have requested refunds but whose entitlement to a refund cannot be determined by TD,” the bank said in a statement.

A lawyer for the convoy, Keith Wilson, called the actions “improper and disappointing.” He said the convoy plans to seek a court order to get the donations released.

One of the bank accounts in question got a C$1 million donation, and the rest was sent through a second account.

GoFundMe removed the protest convoy’s donation page as of Feb. 4 after it had gotten $10 million. That led to many protesters switching to another service, GiveSendGo, instead. The Ontario Superior Court also ordered that site to freeze the funds sent in support of the protest — which the site declined to do. The report says the protest has raised C$11 million on GiveSendGo as of Sunday.

Republican lawmakers in the U.S. have said GoFundMe might have violated federal law by withdrawing the page taking donations for the protesting convoy.

PYMNTS writes that, in a letter to the FTC, Sen. Ted Cruz said regulators need to look into whether GoFundMe had been deceptive when they deleted the page for the convoy.

Related: Capitol Hill Lawmakers Threaten to Probe GoFundMe After Trucker Fundraiser Shuttered