CBC retracts story claiming foreign money was behind Freedom Convoy

CBC has retracted a story about the Freedom Convoy, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. The story in question alleged that foreigners played a role in the protest.

The claim was made on a radio broadcast of The World This Hour, self-described as “Canada’s most trusted audio newscast.” According to the Western Standard, the network released a statement on the matter.

“On February 10 in a report about the protest convoy CBC Radio’s The World This Hour incorrectly said GoFundMe ended a fundraiser for the protesters over questionable donations to the group.” No explanation was given in CBC’s statement.

The network said they completed an analysis of Freedom Convoy donations and concluded there were suspicious donations from foreigners. CBC then ran multiple headlines of this story. “Convoy Protest Received Hundreds of Donations That Appeared To Be From Abroad,” a February headline read.

“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 donors would be refunded, it had attracted more than 120,000 donations amounting to more than $10 million,” the article read.

“An analysis of GoFundMe donations by CBC News has revealed at least one-third of them had been made by donors who chose to remain anonymous or who listed names that were obviously fictitious or political commentary.”

“Personally I felt a little uncomfortable because there were all these guys roaming around the street,” said Elizabeth Thompson, CBC writer.

GoFundMe executives testified at the Commons public safety committee on March 3rd and confirmed only a small minority of donations were from outside Canada.

“Our records show 88% of donated funds originated in Canada,” said Juan Benitez, president of GoFundMe. Furthermore, Canada’s top anti-terror financing regulator said the convoy donations were entirely innocuous.

“There were people around the world who were fed up with COVID and were upset and saw the demonstrations,” Barry McKillop, deputy director of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, testified on February 24 at the Commons finance committee. “I believe they just wanted to support the cause.”

The claim of Russian involvement came from Power and Politics host Nil Koksal, who said: “there is concern that Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows or perhaps even instigating it from the outside.” This claim turned out to be false and the network acknowledged this.