Latest news with #CERB
CBC
4 days ago
- General
- CBC
St. John's housing advocate pleads guilty to fraud, but legal aid request delays sentencing
A St. John's housing advocate has pleaded guilty to fraud, but sentencing has been delayed after a last-minute request for legal aid services. In an agreed statement of facts, Michelle Voisey, also known as Michelle Gushue, admitted to creating an online Canada Revenue Agency account in her niece's name and applying for CERB, the federal financial support for Canadians impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the statement of facts, Voisey's niece contacted police when her GST payment didn't arrive on time. She learned that $8,000 in CERB payments had been paid out in her name — even though she hadn't applied and didn't qualify for the benefit. Voisey was charged in October 2021, and pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000 in March 2025. However, at her sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Justice Peter Browne agreed to delay sentencing while Voisey waits to find out if she's eligible for legal aid. According to Legal Aid lawyer Ben Curties, who spoke during the hearing, Voisey had called earlier in the day. Voisey told them she had received her tax return assessment and believed she now met the income threshold to apply for representation. Voisey also provided the court with a letter from a doctor who she says is finalizing a mental health diagnosis for her. "This should've been brought to the court's attention much earlier in the process," Browne said. Crown lawyer Kellie Cullihall unsuccessfully objected to the delay — the latest in a proceeding that has been ongoing for years. "It is nothing more than another delay tactic in a long line of delay tactics," Cullihall said. Cullihall confirmed that the Crown is "absolutely" seeking prison time for Voisey. Voisey has a lengthy criminal record, with about 50 convictions for fraud, theft, forgery and other crimes. In 2015, she was sentenced to three years in prison for defrauding four businesses and an individual. The statement of facts notes that her previous surnames are Gushue and Dodd, and Voisey is her married name. She was a central part of the 2023 tent city protest on Confederation Hill in St. John's. Under the name Michelle Gushue, she solicited donations of gift cards, cell phones, cash and more for people who lived at the site. As recently as May 2024, Voisey was featured in a Saltwire article about the now-defunct tent encampment in Bannerman Park. The pending case is unrelated to the tent city protest.
National Post
14-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Terry Newman: Be careful, that crowdfunding campaign could be for ISIS
One fundraising campaign on the popular crowdfunding platform GofundMe has been used to finance terrorist group ISIS under the guise of supporting Palestinians in Gaza, and it's not clear whether there could be more. Article content Article content On Monday, at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, 12 year sentence was handed down to Toronto resident Khalilullah Yousuf, who pleaded guilty to participating in a terrorist group and terrorist financing. Article content Article content Yousuf claimed he was crowdfunding on sites like GoFundMe for Palestinians in Gaza and Muslim religious events, but was instead sending the money to ISIS supporters in the U.S., Spain, and other countries. In combination with pandemic Covid Emergency Response Benefits (CERB) he received and crowdfunding, he sent over $35,000. To confirm his funds were being put to ISIS' use, supporters sent him photos of the weapons and ammunition it was spent on, as well as an ISIS flag. Article content Article content Yousuf's involvement with ISIS wasn't limited to financing. Allegedly, as part of an International ISIS network, he communicated with the group online through encrypted messages, participated in recruitment, created propaganda, and provided instructions to these supporters on how to carry out attacks. Article content After a two-year investigation, which involved intelligence forces in Canada, the U.S., and Spain, Yousef was finally arrested in July 2023. His use of multiple methods to transfer these funds, especially cryptocurrency, which is increasingly used for funding terrorism, may have led to him being flagged. Article content Article content Yousuf's case highlights the need for the strident inspection of crowdfunding platforms which host members claiming to raise funds for humanitarian purposes in the Middle East, not just for ISIS but also for other terrorist groups including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Samidoun and any other groups who may be exploiting the well-meaning nature of Canadians to fund and plan attacks here and abroad. Article content Article content Whether the investigation into Yousef's ISIS financing began at crowdfunding sites, and whether they are all being actively monitored for terrorist funding in Canada is unknown. But they should be. Article content Setting up a crowdfunding campaign on a site like GoFundMe is an easy way to draw attention to a specific cause and raise money for it. GoFundMe describes it as a three-step process where a user is prompted to fill in the details of a campaign, share it easily with links to have it gain momentum, and fill out their banking details in order to receive the money. Article content GoFundMe charges a fee of 2.9 per cent plus 30 cents on each transaction. Given that, the platform, no doubt, wants to ensure that they are not facilitating the financing of terror. Intelligence services, for their part, can benefit greatly from having a record of the accounts these funds were paid to.
