Kelowna area gave nearly $60K to trucker convoy: hacked documents

Tens of thousands of dollars has flowed from in and around Kelowna to a U.S.-based fundraiser in support of anti-government and anti-public health measure protests in Ottawa.

That comes according to data contained in hacked documents from Christian fundraising website GiveSendGo. It became the go-to outlet for supporters of the self-described ‘freedom convoy’ to funnel money through after GoFundMe froze and cancelled a previous campaign, citing a violation of its terms of service.

Hackers set their sights on GiveSendGo over the weekend, taking it offline Sunday and directing traffic to a video addressed to “grifters and hatriots.” It also linked to a spreadsheet containing data on nearly 93,000 people connected to the fundraiser.

The spreadsheet, which was analyzed by Kelowna10, contained the name, e-mail and IP address, postal code, amount donated, and other information about each contributor.

Postal codes connected to Kelowna, West Kelowna, and Lake Country were linked to donations ranging from $7 to over $2,000, totaling just shy of US$60,000.

“Doubling my original contribution in protest of interference with the original funding,” one person wrote, and a sentiment shared by many others who claimed to be doing the same.

"I was terminated from my remote job, I can't go to a restaurant, movie theatre, or gym. I can't domestically travel, and I can't attend university. The government and public health officials have taken away my ability to pursue happiness or engage meaningfully with society... all because I want to maintain medical autonomy,” another Kelowna donor wrote, referring to vaccines.

Meantime, a data set provided to The Canadian Press found while 56 per cent of the 93,000 donations came from the United States, Canadians donated the most money at US$4.1 million. American donors sent US$3.62 million and British donors gave US$77,000.

The Canadian Press also analyzed donations by the first three digits of postal codes, which showed Kelowna, Carleton Place, Ont., northwestern Alberta, Calgary, and Kitchener, Ont. had the highest donation counts.

On Monday, when the Emergencies Act was invoked by the federal government, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland detailed how the scope of national anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules would be broadened to cover crowd funding platforms and crypto currency.

Wednesday morning, reports said police had started to hand out notice to demonstrators in downtown Ottawa to leave or face possible arrest.

The Ottawa Police Service said in a bulletin that anyone blocking streets or helping others block streets is breaking the law. Police reference the newly invoked federal Emergencies Act and said anyone coming to Ottawa to join the protest is breaking the law and warns their vehicles can be seized.

-- With files from The Canadian Press