Benjamin Dichter helped promote a cryptocurrency fundraiser for convoy protest

Convoy protest organizer Tamara Lich heads to the hearing room at the Public Order Emergency Commission, in Ottawa on Nov. 2.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

One of the main spokesmen for the “Freedom Convoy” says he did not agree with a proposed deal, struck between organizers and the city of Ottawa, that would have seen truckers move their vehicles out of residential areas.

Benjamin Dichter is on the stand Thursday at the Public Order Emergency Commission, the public inquiry that is tasked with investigating the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act in an effort to end the weeks-long occupation of downtown Ottawa last winter.

He said he came to the capital city in January at the invitation of Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the “Freedom Convoy,” to be a spokesman for the protesters.

But he was not on the same page as Lich about striking a deal with the city.

On Feb. 12, Lich exchanged letters with then-Mayor Jim Watson, discussing an agreement that would see the truckers move their vehicles away from residential streets.

Dichter said he did not think the negotiations should be happening, because they were partially co-ordinated by Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s former chief of staff.

“These are the sorts of things that were causing so much anxiety and division,” Dichter said.

Dichter said he joined the protests with a goal of ending pandemic-related mandates and spreading a message of “peace, love, freedom and unity.”

But he ended up in conflict with other organizers over messaging.

Two other protest organizers, Lich and James Bauder, are also scheduled to appear before the commission Thursday, which is holding public hearings until Nov. 25.

The public inquiry also says most of the millions of dollars raised by the “Freedom Convoy” ended up in an escrow account or returned to donors.

The commission investigated what happened with roughly $25 million worth of donations made through e-transfers, cryptocurrency and fundraising platforms like GiveSendGo and GoFundMe.

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

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

The commission also investigated whether the money came from foreign sources and found that it varied significantly based on the fundraiser.

The Adopt-A-Trucker and Freedom Convoy 2022 campaigns on GiveSendGo raised more than $13 million combined, and the majority of donors to those campaigns were from the United States or elsewhere.