More than 150 people from Nanaimo donated $19,000 to the convoy protests and illegal blockades through the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo, an analysis of hacked data from the website reveals.
Earlier this week, crowdfunding website GiveSendGo was hacked after it gained widespread use in collecting funds for truckers blocking downtown Ottawa and Canada-U.S. borders across the country.
RELATED: Trudeau invokes Emergencies Act as ‘illegal blockades’ drag on
The person or persons who illegally hacked the website posted the data of people that donated to the trucker convoy cause. The data included email addresses, names, postal codes, IP addresses, personalized messages to the truckers and amounts donated. No credit card information was leaked and no money was stolen, the GiveSendGo site confirmed. After the hack, GiveSendGo said its security team immediately shut down the website to prevent further damage.
Truckers and their supporters turned to GiveSendGo after GoFundMe announced it would not forward money raised through its website to the truckers because the protests violated its rules on violence and harassment. More than 120,000 donors contributed about $10 million before the GoFundMe page was shut down and donors were reimbursed.
Before GiveSendGo’s website was hacked, more than 36,000 people who donated, or 36 per cent, were from Canada, while 56 per cent came from the U.S. Two per cent came from the United Kingdom and the remaining three per cent came from more than 100 other countries.
There were more than 92,000 listed donations in total.
The data shows that Canadians donated the largest amount of money at $5.4 million (CAD), while residents in the U.S. donated $4.5 million.
By analyzing the postal codes attached to individual donations, Black Press Media found that approximately 170 Nanaimo residents donated at least $19,000 to the cause. That figure represents only residents who live in the V9R, V9S, V9T and V9V postal code areas.
No single donation was more than $1,000, but one of the people who made a $1,000 donation also made a $400 donation.
“We support you for standing up for our freedoms through a peaceful movement! With love to you all!” that donor wrote. “Love hope peace and freedom! For our kids and grandkids!”
People who made a donation were not obligated to provide their real name, e-mail address or postal code. Some of the information could be fake or submitted under an alias.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on Monday, Feb. 14, invoked the national Emergencies Act to bring to an end the anti-government blockades he describes as illegal and not about peaceful protest.
The government will use the act to force towing companies to remove big rigs and other vehicles that are blocking highways and other critical infrastructure, establish zones where public assembly is not allowed, and require banks to suspend or freeze accounts suspected of supporting the blockades, including those belonging to companies whose trucks are part of the convoy.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government is “serving notice” to trucking companies with vehicles involved in any of the blockades that they will have their corporate accounts frozen and lose their insurance.
– with files from the Canadian Press
READ ALSO: GoFundMe removes Freedom Convoy fundraiser, says protest has ‘become an occupation’
editor@nanaimobulletin.com
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