Fighting the political consequences of organizing a fundraiser to protest the convoy that paralyzed downtown Ottawa, the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe lobbied behind the scenes for lawmakers before company leaders testified publicly in front of two parliamentary committees.
According to the Federal Lobbying Register, GoFundMe representatives met with three MPs from the Public Safety and National Security Committee and the committee’s chairman, Liberal MP Jim Carr, in the days leading up to the company’s March 3 public appearance.
Liberal MP Jim Carr, chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and National Security. (Jeff Mackintosh / Canadian Press)
In any case, the lobbyist of the public relations firm PAA Advisory, who organized the meeting, had ties to the party of the individual MP.
The register also shows that the PAA Advisory organized a meeting on behalf of GoFundMe with two Conservative Party researchers.
Lobbying in committees is not uncommon in Parliament Hill. However, ethics observers say such lobbying can help those who can afford it, navigate government better, get meetings faster and gain more influence with politicians.
The only party represented on the 12-member committee that GoFundMe did not meet was Bloc Québécois. Bloc MP Kristina Misho, deputy chair of the committee, said company representatives had never contacted her and she did not know that GoFundMe had lobbied four of her fellow committee members before the company came out.
In early February, the committee voted unanimously to call in GoFundMe staff to answer questions about their fundraising convoy, which at the time raised more than $ 10.1 million in support of a protest against the vaccine mandate in Ottawa and elsewhere.
The protest has knotted downtown Ottawa for three weeks and blocked several border crossings.
While the meetings were organized by registered lobbyists working with PAA Advisory, MPs interviewed by CBC News said they met with GoFundMe President Juan Benitez and the company’s chief adviser Kim Wilford, who later testified. MEPs said they did not believe their meetings with GoFundMe executives had affected the outcome of the hearing.
Listening Exercise
The Lobbyists’ Register also shows that Benitez and Wilford met virtually with the chairman of the Finance Committee, Liberal MP Peter Fonseca, on March 16, the day before GoFundMe appeared before the Finance Committee.
“For the most part, it was a listening exercise …” Fonseca said. “They provided an overview of the company and what happened to the convoy’s campaign.”
Paypal said it had lobbied three members of the Public Safety Committee on “financial institutions” in the days leading up to his March 3 testimony. There is no indication that anyone has registered as a member of the lobbying committee on behalf of two other companies that appeared before the committee that day – GiveSendGo and Stripe.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on February 19, 2022, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
GiveSendGo hosted the Freedom Convoy 2022 online crowdfunding campaign after GoFundMe closed an initial multi-million dollar fundraiser.
Jacob Wells, co-founder of GiveSendGo, said he was surprised to learn that his rivals at GoFundMe had hired lobbyists to help them meet with MPs before both crowdfunding companies appeared before the Public Safety Committee.
“We were not aware of this and we ourselves had NO contact with MPs or other government officials before this appearance,” Wales said in an email.
GoFundMe declined to comment. Lobbyists from the PAA Advisory have not yet responded to several reports from CBC News.
As there is a delay between the lobbyist’s meeting with an MP and the public record of this meeting in the lobbyists’ register, it is not yet known whether more meetings have been organized on behalf of GoFundMe or whether his lobbying efforts are ongoing.
Access for those who can afford it
Lobbying members of parliament is legal as long as companies and lobbyists follow the rules, such as registering with the lobbying commissioner, outlining government decisions they want to influence and reporting when they meet with a politician or senior government official.
Duff Connacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, said such lobbying efforts could gain access and influence in government for those who can pay for it.
“If you can buy access, you have a chance to make an impact that many people don’t have because they can’t afford a lobbyist with connections to the decision maker,” he said.
Connacher said lobbyists could charge hundreds of dollars an hour for their services and could meet with selected employees much faster than ordinary citizens.
Lobbyists’ meetings with lawmakers could allow companies to refine their public appearances, said Conaher, who testified on behalf of Democracy Watch in parliamentary hearings.
“All this will help you prepare your introductory statement and you will be able to prepare to answer their questions in a way that neutralizes their anxiety if not reverse their position,” he said.
A wide range of lobbying goals
According to the lobbying register, PAA Advisory first registered to lobby on behalf of GoFundMe on February 11, a day after it was announced that the company had agreed to testify before the Public Safety Committee.
At registration, PAA Advisory lobbyists said they plan to communicate “with parliamentary committees and their membership to prepare testimony as requested by elected officials”, to inform them about GoFundMe’s policies and practices, and to commit to ” regulators and government institutions on the Canadian counter-test – the money laundering and terrorist financing regime and the creation of the new Financial Crimes Agency. “
According to the registration, PAA Advisory plans to lobby Finance Finance, the Center for Financial Transaction Analysis and Reporting of Canada (FINTRAC), the House of Commons, the Office of the Governor of Financial Institutions in Canada, Public Safety Canada, the Senate and the Prime Minister’s Office. .
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose to the House of Commons during the period in question. His office and the Municipality itself were among the entities nominated for lobbying by the PAA Advisory. (Sean Kilpatrick / Canadian Press)
The first meeting organized by PAA Advisory for GoFundMe – with Jim Carr – took place a week after the company registered to lobby on behalf of GoFundMe.
“The (committee) meeting with GoFundMe was public, even televised,” Carr said by e-mail. “I prepared with them how the meetings of the commissions work. That is all.”
The following week, on February 24, Liberal MP Pam Damoff and NDP MP Alistair McGregor met separately with GoFundMe.
Damoff said the meeting was an informal opportunity to talk to Benitez and Wilford about the steps taken by GoFundMe during the Ottawa protest.
“It just had to be very factual about what happened, when and what their process was, what their conditions were and how they followed them,” she said.
Damoff said it was not uncommon for companies to seek meetings with committee members.
Fact Gathering Exercise
McGregor said he sometimes meets with witnesses scheduled to testify before the committee, in part because he gets little time to ask questions during committee meetings. The meeting with GoFundMe allowed him to focus his line of questions during the committee meeting, he said.
“I accepted the meeting because we were in the process of trying to learn everything we could about GoFundMe, about the specific fundraising it is organizing,” he said. “And I thought it would be a great opportunity to just learn a little more about their company, hear their side of the story about why they got involved, and also learn a little more about their terms of service.
“I approached it only as an exercise in gathering information and facts.”
McGregor said the company had talked about talks with the Ottawa Police Department and terms of use.
Conservative MP Dane Lloyd, right, with then-Conservative leader Andrew Shear in the House of Commons. Lloyd said GoFundMe were “very concerned about their PR.” (Adrian Wilde / Canadian Press)
Conservative MP Dane Lloyd was the last member of the Public Safety Committee to meet with GoFundMe executives just two days before they appeared before the committee.
“GoFundMe was very worried about their PR because of that, so they were very worried about going to the committee meeting, I think about how it will turn out,” Lloyd said. “So I think they wanted to meet with MPs to tell a little bit of their story, to put a preface to things before the committee meeting.”
Lloyd said the meeting was part of his study of the committee meeting and inspired his first question.
“They told me that no one in the government had ever called them during the crisis, and that really piqued my interest,” Lloyd said. “That’s why I asked the question to put it on the record.”
Lloyd said witnesses who appear before committees sometimes want to meet with lawmakers first.
Add Comment