Convoy protest received large number of donations from abroad

Hundreds of the GoFundMe donations to the truck convoy protest came from donors who said they were located outside of Canada, according to an analysis of data collected by CBC News.

The analysis of a sample of more than 6,600 comments made on the GoFundMe crowdfunding page before it was shut down shows that 573 donations amounting to more than $33,378 came from people who said they were located abroad.

More than half of those donors — 322 — said they were located in the United States. Collectively, American donors contributed $21,101 — 63.2 per cent of the money donated by people who said they were located outside of Canada.

After the U.S. the location cited most often by donors was the United Kingdom, where 53 people donated a total of $2,519.

Two dozen donors who gave a total of $635 listed their location as France, while Germany was listed as the source for 18 donations totalling $2,005. Australia was listed 18 times for a total of $1,154, while New Zealand was cited in five donations totalling $195.

Some of those countries, such as New Zealand, are now seeing attempts to emulate the Canadian truck convoy, set up to protest vaccine mandates and pandemic public health restrictions.

Some six-figure donations to the GoFundMe campaign were made anonymously. Many of those who said they were donating from abroad gave smaller donations.

Amounts ranged from a low of $5 to a $1,500 donation from someone who listed their location in the United States and said, "Canadian truckers are an inspiration to the U.S." Another $1,030 came from a donor who said they were in the U.K. and offered the comment, "With admiration ... May God Bless you."

The donations identified by CBC News are likely only a percentage of all of the donations made by people outside of  Canada. Not all of the people who made the 120,000 donations to the campaign left comments — and at least a third of them chose to make their donations anonymously or under fictitious names.

Some domestic donors may have chosen to cite a foreign location when they donated. In the comments, 29 said that they were Canadians living abroad.

Neither GoFundMe nor GiveSendGo — another crowdfunding platform that has helped the protesters raise money — has responded yet to questions from CBC News about how many donors were located abroad.

In recent days, questions have emerged about how the protesters raised so much money so quickly and where it came from. Before GoFundMe shut down the protest convoy's crowdfunding page and announced that donors would be refunded, it had attracted more than 120,000 donations amounting to more than $10 million.

Protest organizers quickly moved their crowdfunding to the Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo, where their campaign has received more than 85,000 donations totalling more than $7.7 million US since Friday. Unlike GoFundMe, the GiveSendGo site says it does not refund donations because the money flows directly to the bank account designated by organizers of a fundraising campaign.

A separate Adopt a Trucker campaign to support the protest has received more than 7,000 donations totalling more than $644,000 Cdn.