Freedom Convoy organizer breaks down at commission hearing

Tamara Lich, who is perhaps the most recognizable of the organizers of the 'Freedom Convoy' that brought Ottawa to a standstill in January 2021, testified at the Public Order Emergency Commission Thursday.

She gave her reasons for becoming involved in the protest that included hundreds of vehicles joining the convoy and blocking the streets of the nation's capital.

She said she joined the convoy after failing to get a response from members of Parliament she emailed about ending COVID-19 restrictions.

“I was growing increasingly alarmed with the mandates and the harm that I was seeing the mandates inflict on Canadians,” she said.

“I never, in a million years, saw this coming and never had an agenda. I literally just wanted to help some truckers drive across Canada and stand in front of Parliament with some signs, that was literally what I had envisioned.”

At one stage Lich broke down as she reflected on the two years of vaccine mandates she said ruined people's lives.

"Elderly people were dying by themselves in long term care facilities and saying goodbye on their iPads," she said. "My grandma is 94 years old and was locked in her tiny little apartment for two years."

Meanwhile, an investigation has found that most of the $25 million raised by the 'Freedom Convoy' was either returned to donors or ended up in an escrow account awaiting the results of a civil lawsuit.

The Public Order Emergency Commission, the public inquiry tasked with looking into the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act during the protests, investigated what happened to donations made through e-transfers, cryptocurrency, and fundraising platforms such as GiveSendGo and GoFundMe.

A report released by the commission Thursday shows that only about $1 million was actually spent by the convoy’s various organizers.

One of the convoy’s leaders told the commission in an interview that they distributed $20,000 in donations to truckers each day of the protest, often by handing out envelopes of $2,000 in cash.

Approximately $18 million was refunded to donors, while the rest was confiscated and put into a third-party fund, pending civil court cases.

The $6.2 million that is now in escrow mostly came from online fundraisers by Lich, one of the protest’s main organizers, and cryptocurrency captured by authorities.

Crowdfunding efforts led by Lich raised nearly $10.1 million from more than 120,000 donors before donations were suspended by GoFundMe and returned.

-- With files form Laura Osman and David Fraser, The Canadian Press