Convoy Supporter Threatens Lawsuit Against Critics of Coutts Legal Defence Fundraiser
Convoy supporter behind a Coutts legal defence fundraising initiative denies allegations about mishandling of crowdfunding money
A supporter who is raising money on behalf of four men standing trial for their roles in the 2022 convoy blockade at Coutts, Alberta is denying allegations that crowdfunding money has been mishandled.
Margaret Mackay says she is exploring the option of a “defamation lawsuit” to respond to critics, whom she compares to “rabid wolves.”
Over the weekend, a number of convoy influencers began raising questions about how funds raised for a Coutts legal defence is being managed and disbursed to four men accused of conspiring to murder RCMP officers.
In a Facebook video posted Monday, Mackay responded to her critics.
“Oh my gosh, the chatter going on out there is just ridiculous,” Mackay said. “Nothing to hide, it all went into one bank account, it’s all wrote down.”
Mackay revealed she is considering a “defamation lawsuit” to clear her name and issued a “plea to the public”:
“Me and the men need some help right now to put these evil entities — and I do call them evil entities — back into their corners.
I may need a lawyer. I may need to go after these people with a — what’s it called? — a defamation lawsuit. I talked to an ex-RCMP officer yesterday looking for some advice on how to deal with this. This is not my life. I don’t know how to deal with people like this. And they’re coming out of the sewers, let me tell ya. So if anybody out there can help me, point me in the right direction, maybe there’s a lawyer out there that would go pro bono, I don’t have money for a lawyer and we all see how much lawyer’s cost from the four men, so if anybody can help me, please do.”
In her video, Mackay said she has raised “around $77,460” to date.
“34 transactions, 34 e-transfers, 34 times they’ve been transferred money and they’ve been given to the three men’s parents and a wife.”
One small detail: Mackay’s website indicates she has raised over $200,000 through fundraisers, while a GiveSendGo in her name lists $56,125.
In a clarification to ConvoyWatch, Mackay explained the discrepancy by noting she meant $77,460 was raised for each of the four men individually.
Mackay confirmed the total amount raised was therefore four times higher — $309,840, not $77,460.
“No use of the money was used inappropriately,” Mackay told ConvoyWatch. “100% of all donations goes to the men.”
“All four men and the families are coming forward to defend me,” Mackay said, adding she intends to release “all the breakdowns.”
“I talk to Chris, Jerry, Tony, Chris every day or every second day. Plus regular contact with the families.”
In a posting in a Facebook group, Mackay suggested she communicated with one of the men in jail Monday morning and claimed he told her “he wants everyone to stop attacking me”:
“He trusts me and wants me to show a couple friends of his the account and all the paperwork/numbers. We have a plan.”
Mackay’s response was prompted by questions and unverified allegations coming from a number of convoy influencers.
Over the weekend, Donald Best, a convoy livestreamer and former police officer, announced on Twitter he plans to publish a detailed report titled: “Questions, Doubts, Lack of Accountability Undermine Coutts Fundraising.”
“In short... Your money didn't go where you thought it did - or where some of the family members thought it would or should go.”
In a livestream Sunday night, Best hinted at a number of unsubstantiated allegations about “several people involved in the fundraising for the Coutts 4, primary among them is Margaret Mackay.”
Best, however, also provided some heavily-qualified clarifications:
“Nobody should ever infer from anything that I say that I have substantiated criminal crimes regarding this fundraising, either now or in the past, should never think that I’ve substantiated that, but there are significant red flags, and I call them to be kind red flags, if we were sitting in the fraud office at 52 Division right now, we’d call them badges of fraud — doesn’t mean fraud happened, there’s a lot of reasons why it could happen. But I want to say is Margaret Mackay, she deserves this, what I’m about to say is that if it were not for her efforts, for her tireless work to represent these four accused and bring their stories to Canada and the world, I wouldn’t be here … So there’s that. But my report is titled “Questions, Doubts, Lack of Accountability Undermine Coutts Fundraising.” And in short, and this is two paragraphs from my report: One, your money didn’t go where you thought it did or where some of the family members thought it would or should or hoped it would go. The current accounting records are, to be polite, incomplete and they are probably incapable of being audited with any confidence.”
Best said his “mission” is to “restore public confidence,” explaining:
“Now there are also some, I’m going to say pieces of evidence, and I’m not going to get into them here, people have been asking me to detail them, why I came to my opinion — no, I’m not going to do that, I’m going to do it in writing, that’s only fair to everybody. People have been talking to me, witnesses have been talking to me, family members have been talking to me, so this is, as far as I’m concerned, I’m doing the best I can to do write a report that does justice to the oath that I took when I was a police officer and my duty to my fellow Canadians now as I act as a journalist, but here I am back with my investigator shoes on. So, there are problems, they can be fixed, they need to be fixed right away — a new start needs to happen and that needs to happen soon.”
Best also noted:
“I can tell you that these funds were not distributed as the people who gave the funds intended. So look, we’ve all seen hockey fundraisers or bingo at the church go sideways. We’ve all seen that and things happen and that’s the way it is. But there are rules. There are standards. And often times when people come forward with good intent, they want to organize something to help that man who was hit in a car accident and can’t walk and he’s got a mortgage, whatever happened, someone got burned, we want to help people, but unless the infrastructure is already in place, professional, independent oversight, receipts, transparency, all the things which by the way in Alberta are mandated, its mandated for fundraising efforts, all those things have to be in place it can get away, even with the best of intentions.”
Best says he plans to publish his report “on, or before next weekend Sunday November 12.”