Thunder Bay, Ont., donors gave $13K US of the $8.4M total to support convoy protest

Hacked data indicates millions of dollars from around the world have gone to support the convoy protest in Canada, and now a CBC analysis indicates that money includes nearly $13,000 US (about $17,000 Cdn) donated by people with postal codes in Thunder Bay, Ont.

The majority of those donations came in small sums, similar to what was seen in donations by people across Canada. While Thunder Bay is not a major source of donations, experts say it demonstrates a shift in the way populist movements are being funded in the country.

The data — hacked illegally and released publicly late Sunday evening — sheds light on the identity of thousands of donors to the crowdfunding campaign.

A check by CBC News found multiple names in the hacked data correspond to names, dates and donation amounts collected independently by CBC News as the donations rolled in to GiveSendGo. The Christian fundraising site was blocked by PayPal last year after it was used to raise money for people at the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot in Washington.

In the Canadian protests against vaccine mandates, 92,844 donations made between Feb. 1 and 10 were detailed in the hacked data, raising a total of $8.4 million (about $10.7 million Cdn) — with 52.5 per cent from donors in Canada, mostly rural areas and western provinces.

Donors were directed to GiveSendGo after GoFundMe refunded the more than $10 million Cdn raised after the Canadian crowdfunding site said the protest violated its rules on violence and harassment.

The convoy began as a protest against vaccine mandates, pandemic restrictions and lockdowns, but has become associated with extreme right-wing ideologies. Some have displayed signs of hate while protesting, including the Confederate flag and swastikas, and there are police reports of violence.

Most donations in small amounts

An analysis of the data from people with postal codes starting with "P7" — indicative of an address in Thunder Bay — showed that of 99 individual donations made between Feb. 5 and 10, many came in denominations of under $50.

GiveSendGo does not validate postal codes — it seems as if some people used fake postal codes — so the hacked data set is an estimate.

While there were a handful of donations from people in Thunder Bay who gave more than $1,000, over two-thirds were from $10 to $100 — similar to what is seen across the data set.

The names listed in the data indicate a wide range of people who donated — from health-care staff, to engineers, construction workers, people in the financial, legal and fitness industries, even a former political candidate in Thunder Bay.

"The data seems to indicate, as much as we can tell, that people came from a lot of walks of life," Max Haiven, Canada research chair in culture, media and social justice at Lakehead University, told CBC News after looking at the Thunder Bay data.

Haiven said movements connected to the far right and Christian evangelical organizations are increasingly well organized and well funded by large organizations and wealthy donors.

What is concerning about the data, he added, is it shows how many Canadians are resonating with "the very real frustrations about this pandemic and the government response" that are being expressed through the protests.

"A lot of people want to express their support in a way for the convoy, but don't know how to do it," Haiven said. "So by making a kind of almost symbolic donation, they feel like they're responding to a world that feels sort of out of their reach and out of their control."

While many of the donations were made with messages of support for the protesters "fighting to get our freedom back," or comments targeting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and "totalitarianism," a small number encouraged the protests to remain peaceful and referenced the "vast cross-section" of Canadians who are tired of ongoing pandemic restrictions.

Scale of donations is 'novel'

While the sheer amount of money raised in support of the truck convoy protests has shocked many, Barbara Perry called the scale of small donations through crowdfunding platforms "novel."

Perry, a professor at University of Ontario Institute of Technology and director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism, said similar movements in Canada have previously been largely self-funded. 

Usually, groups in the country raised money by selling memberships, sometimes merchandise with their symbols or mottos, she said. The recent turn to crowdfunding in Canada has been "quite a shift," Perry added.

"There are some groups in the U.S. that have a longer history, that have had more success in funding themselves through these sorts of mechanisms," said Perry.

"We haven't seen anything on a scale like this in Canada for any populist movement … I mean, this is an incredible amount of money we're talking about across just those two platforms, never mind what might be rolling in through other venues that we're not necessarily aware of."