The co-founder of GiveSendGo, Jacob Wells, showed up to a parliamentary committee on the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act more than an hour late, with just 10 minutes left in the meeting.
The chair, NDP MP Matthew Green, initially told the committee Wells pulled out of his virtual committee appearance just minutes before he was expected to take questions from parliamentarians on his involvement in the fundraising for the “Freedom Convoy” protest that rolled into Ottawa in late January.
Wells logged in to the meeting with 10 minutes left, citing a family emergency.
Wells was closely involved in the protest organizers’ fundraising efforts, though most of the $12 million in donations collected on the GiveSendGo platform was ultimately returned to donors.
His testimony is likely to be rescheduled to a future meeting.
The parliamentary committee is happening in parallel to the Public Order Emergency Commission, an independent inquiry led by commissioner Justice Paul Rouleau.