Caroline Shenaz Hossein felt trepidation as she followed the news that Canada would invoke the Emergencies Act to bring the convoy protests to an end.

A professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough who studies non-profits and the informal economy, Hossein had been encouraged over the last two years to see the COVID-19 pandemic lead more Canadians to embrace a form of giving long practiced by Black communities and other marginalized groups: mutual aid, often using digital platforms to bypass charities and disperse funds directly to those in need. She had hoped the resurgence would lend legitimacy to the outside-the-system economic practices she studies, such as the “banker ladies”—Black women in Canada and the Caribbean who pool money and take turns handing it out to each other.

“The pandemic opened up all this possibility,” she said. “And now in one fell swoop, because of demonstrators who threaten commerce and business productivity … there is something that threatens this kind of innovation.”

Effective immediately, online crowdfunding platforms and a wide range of financial services are subject to a sweeping set of rules that require them to continuously monitor for activity related to the convoy protests currently underway in Ottawa and other spots around the country, report any suspicions of such activity to law enforcement, and register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) if they believe they’re in possession of any funds connected to a convoy protester. In a speech Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said the government intends to introduce legislation that would bring all crowdfunding platforms and their payment providers under FINTRAC’s permanent oversight.

This isn’t the legitimacy Hossein was hoping for. She and other experts are concerned the new surveillance requirements for crowdfunding platforms and financial services will have long-lasting implications for both civil liberties and the platforms themselves.

“It’s extraordinary to me,” said Matt McGuire, a Toronto-based anti-money-laundering expert who advises companies on regulatory risks. “It is super sweeping. I’m amazed at the increase in powers that seem to be permanent.”

The massive amounts of money donated in support of the convoy protests through online crowdfunding platforms have posed a problem for governments and law-enforcement officials seeking to cut demonstrators off from the food, fuel and other necessities that have made it possible to keep a sustained presence in Ottawa and other cities for weeks.

Earlier this month, GoFundMe declared it would issue refunds for all but $1 million of the $10 million total raised in support of the convoy, after determining “that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.” In response, donations to other fundraising platforms and cryptocurrency-based campaigns exploded.

Jonathan Ip, a Toronto-based lawyer who advises startups, said law enforcement officials looking for information on contributors to a crowdfunding campaign used to run into a roadblock. Prior to the emergency orders, crowdfunding platforms didn’t have to collect and verify information about donors, which meant police had to request that information from the banks and credit-card companies that processed the donations.

Ip said setting up a compliance program with know-your-client checks, monitoring transactions and reporting suspicious activity is a “monumental task.” He predicted platforms based outside Canada may instead simply opt to bar Canadian residents from participating, much like most large foreign cryptocurrency-trading platforms have done following a crackdown by Canadian securities regulators.

”I think the non-Canadian platforms would probably just exclude Canadians until they can figure it out,” Ip said. “And then unfortunately, Canadian platforms have to figure out how to comply.”

GoFundMe and Patreon, a well-known U.S.-based platform for setting up regular monthly contributions in support of various causes, did not respond to requests for comment on the new measures, or whether they would consider barring Canadian users to comply.

Crowdfunding campaigns can be sensitive, with people in financial need or looking to escape abusive circumstances often hoping to keep private the kind of personal information that new legislation might require. The Canadian organization Open Privacy makes an application called Lockbox that helps people administering such campaigns to encrypt web forms.

McGuire said there are a lot of things Canada needs to do to improve its anti-money-laundering enforcement, but the measures in the emergency order were not on his list. He said he would rather see Canada direct more resources to policing white-collar crime.

“Crowdfunding platforms are not our big money-laundering problem in this country,” McGuire said. 

While many Canadians are anxious for the convoy protests to end, Hossein said it’s important to consider how the long-lasting effects of the emergency measures, as well as similar measures that could be enacted in the future, might affect fundraising for other advocacy groups. She pointed out that Black Lives Matter, a social movement that has made extensive use of online crowdfunding, has radical elements, as well.

“They’re trying to protect business; they’re trying to protect [the] rule of law. And in the process of that, they’re actually minimizing the collective coordination of people who are excluded or left behind,” she said. “That to me is scary.”