Chilliwack – What started out as a Sunday morning one off Tweet on Twitter from Chilliwack-Hope MP Mark Strahl, quickly escalated into one of the hot trending topics of the day, nation wide.
Mark Strahl, MP posted :”Briane is a single mom from Chilliwack working a minimum wage job. She gave $50 to the convoy when it was 100% legal. She hasn’t participated in any other way. Her bank account has now been frozen. This is who Justin Trudeau is actually targeting with his Emergencies Act orders.”
Immediately, there were fact checkers at work, trying to find “Briane” , who she was and where her contribution was on the GoFundMe page. That funding was suspended by the host and now being investigated as the background money that assisted the now dismantled Ottawa “Freedom Convoy” which took over the street of the nation’s capital for three weeks.
There has been plenty of speculation if “Briane” is an alias or was it made up.
Peter Lang, President of the Chilliwack Metis Associan and a long standing critic of the Conservative MP Tweeted: (Replying to @markstrahl) Well let that be a lesson to Briane. Don’t donate to domestic terrorists trying to overthrow a democratically elected government. You love dividing people.
Media outlets including FVN, CKNW and Global have reached out to Strahl, asking for more information and an interview.
Late Sunday evening, Strahl DM’d FVN News Director Don Lehn saying that “given the hate that has been sent her way online already, I will advise her to stay anonymous.”
There is a Twitter page claiming to be Briane: Strahl noted to FVN that this is obviously fake.
On Tuesday afternoon, Strahl once again took to Twitter to update the situation with “Briane” and her affiliation with the American Christian based fundraising app GiveSendGo:
From Bloomburg’s Brian Platt: I’ve been told by finance officials the Emergencies Act banking measures do not apply retroactively. Only activities after the regs were published on Tuesday, Feb 15 are subject to the bank measures. So either there’s been a mistake, or there’s more to this case. I should add that banks are making their own decisions, so mistakes are definitely possible. But here’s what I was told verbatim: “If you gave money before [Tuesday] in support of the protests, or what you thought was a legitimate demonstration, you’re not captured by the order”
From political commentator David Schreck from Strategic Thoughts: Has @markstrahl made himself the story when he can’t provide evidence to support his incredible claim? Come on Mark, your minimum wage earner’s identify can be hidden but bank can be named and confronted.
