Canada’s use of law to protest crypto donations was unconstitutional: court

A federal court in Canada has ruled that emergency legislation that gave the government power to curb money flows and legislation to fund anti-crypto trucks was unreasonable and unconstitutional.

In his Jan. 23 decision, Judge Richard Mosley concluded that “there was no national emergency to justify invoking the emergency and the decision to do so was unreasonable.”

In the year

Protesters called the “Freedom Convoy” used trucks to block roads in the nation's capital, Ottawa, to protest an order requiring truck drivers crossing the Canada-US border to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

At the time, the government said that the protest was an illegal activity and the emergency law had to be invoked.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Union (CCLA), the Canadian Constitution Foundation and other groups have argued that the government's use of the state of emergency to block money laundering is unnecessary and unconstitutional.

Following the decision, the CCLA “sets a clear and decisive precedent for future government”.

Mosley argued that it should be a tool of last resort because “the state cannot invoke the emergency declaration, or because it may work better than other tools or because it is available to the state.”

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government would appeal.

Related: Crypto Donations Surpass $10B in Ten Years

Cryptocurrencies have played a major role in funding the 2022 trucker protests, with protesters estimated to have raised millions of dollars, but the exact amount raised remains unclear due to decentralized digital asset tracking.

In February 2022, GoFundMe blocked more than $9 million in donations raised for the protests. Organizers have shifted their efforts to Tallycoin, a crowdfunding platform built on the Bitcoin blockchain, where Honkhonk Hoddle's team raised more than 22 bitcoins (BTC), which at the time were worth $925,000.

Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo also became a popular donation platform, raising more than $8 million for truckers, including an undisclosed amount in crypt. However, Canadian authorities later froze bank accounts linked to GiveSendGo donations.

At the time, crypto executives, including Kraken founder Jesse Powell, condemned Canada's shutdown of digital assets.

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