Frozen Bank Accounts

'I had no mode of transportation. I had no access to any funds.'

Part 1: Nothing Made Sense

Clayton found out his bank accounts had been frozen after a friend tried to e-transfer him $50 the day he was arrested. An error message on his mobile phone advised: "It looks like you don't have an eligible account for Interact e-Transfer."

Near midnight, Clayton announced on Facebook: "It's official that all of my bank accounts have been shut down. [Toronto Dominion] and [Bank of Montreal] for anyone curious." Several business accounts were frozen, as were his personal accounts. So was a joint account, set up for mortgage purposes with third parties who hadn't set foot in Ottawa during the trucker protest

It’s worth noting that, three days earlier, Clayton had preemptively contacted one of his banks:

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Between the time Clayton was fingerprinted and finally released from police custody, there was an additional twist. "They put me in the back of a cop cruiser," he says, "and drove me about 20 minutes out of town, to a gas station. Just dropped me off." It was dark by then. Night had fallen.

I had 1% left on my cell phone. All of my bank accounts were frozen. I had no mode of transportation. I had no access to any funds. Just left out in the cold.

I was able to get a phone call out to a couple from Ottawa that had come down every single night after work to see us. I explained, 'I'm at a gas station. There's this here.'

He says, 'OK, I think I know where you are.' And then my phone died.

Within half an hour, this good Samaritan had located Clayton and taken him back to his own home. A few other Convoy supporters were already there. “We stayed there for the week. They had beds and couches."

As it turned out, this family gave Clayton refuge for three weeks in total. After his truck was released, necessary repairs took a while. "Amazing people," he says. "Just complete strangers. I didn't know them before, but now every time I go out to Ottawa, I always stop in and see 'em."

next installment: When Police Commit Vandalism