Locations of the Freedom Convoy donors in Ontario, Canada, have been published on Google Maps after the names of those who gave money to the crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo were leaked online.
The Google Maps link contains thousands of pins pointing to locations of donors throughout the Canadian province, with each pin listing their names, donor ID, email address, and the amount they donated, including those as low as $10.
Who published the donors and how the list was obtained from GiveSendGo still remains unknown. Last week, the Christian crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo had its data reportedly hacked to reveal the names of donors supporting the truckers protesting the vaccine mandate. Once the names were publicly leaked, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reportedly began to harass people on this list. Shortly thereafter, Breitbart News received the following email that an Ottawa-based Canadian received from CBC Ottawa’s David Fraser and Guy Quenneville titled, “CBC Ottawa interview request: donating to Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa”:
Good morning.
This is David Fraser and Guy Quenneville from CBC Ottawa.
We’re working on a story about the people who allegedly contributed funds, through GiveSendGo, to the ongoing Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa, according to the public release of hacked data from the site.
We’re reaching out to you because your name and information appeared on the list, and we’re interested in interviewing you both about why you may have donated to the cause, but also how you feel about having had your personal information leaked.
We should stress: we are not automatically identifying anyone by name in our story. We need to verify with people that they indeed contributed, as a first step.
The second step is seeing if people will share their story with us.
If you’re interested, please write us back as soon as possible.
Many other Canadians reported receiving similar emails as various Canadian journalists began to publicly share the list, with the Washington Post writing a “lengthy thread singling out the biggest donor and a map showing where the donations came from in the U.S,” according to Fox News.
On Tuesday, the Toronto Star reported over a dozen Ontario police officers currently on the government’s payroll donated to the GiveSendGo account:
The leaked GiveSendGo donors list included the names and postal codes of donors (postal codes had to be accurate for credit card payments to go through). Torstar reporters cross-referenced the list with publicly available records, including property records and Ontario’s most recent public salary disclosure, the 2020 Sunshine List.
The review identified two recently retired Ottawa officers, three officers from Toronto and 10 OPP officers, whose identities were corroborated with middle names, birth dates, and photos from social media.
Another 23 donors shared names and geographic locations with Ontario police officers from the three services, but reporters were unable to find any other data to either include them among the identified officers or cross them off the list.
The outlet ultimately decided against publicly naming the officers on the list after most declined to comment when reached for questioning. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said that officers are not barred from donating to political causes.
Publishing of the donors on Google Maps comes after police in Ottawa made sweeping (sometimes violent) arrests of protesters over the weekend.