Sask. residents donated nearly $200K US to support convoy protestors, mostly in small donations

Saskatchewan residents donated nearly $200,000 US, or more than $250,000 Cdn, to a campaign on the crowdfunding website GiveSendGoto help fuel the Freedom Convoy protest, according to hacked data from the fundraiser.

The vast majority of the donations weresmall sums, similar to the trend across the country.

The data, which washacked illegally and then released publicly on Sunday,sheds light on the identity of thousands of donors to the crowdfunding campaign.

It includes the names,home country, personal emails and postal code of donors.

In total, $8.4 million US (about $10.7 million Cdn) in funds were raised through the website from 92,844 donations made from Feb. 1 toFeb. 10.

Donors were directed to GiveSendGo after GoFundMe refunded the more than $10 million Cdn raised after GoFundMesaid the protest violated its rules on violence and harassment.

The convoy began as a protest against vaccine mandates, pandemic restrictions and lockdowns, but has become associated with extreme right-wing ideologies. Some people have displayed signs of hate while protesting, including the Confederate flag and swastikas.

Small donations dominate in Saskatchewan

According to an analysis of the hacked data by CBC News,1,313of the donations can be traced back to Saskatchewan postal codes.

However, GiveSendGodoes not validate postal codes, so those who donated to the campaign could have used fake information. As a result, the hacked data set is an estimate.

The analysis shows 72 per cent of the donations from Saskatchewanwere $100 or less, compared to 87 per cent across the entire campaign.

Around 52.5 per cent of all donations came from donors in Canada, with many coming from rural areas and western provinces.

In Saskatchewan, cash flowed into the campaignfrom every corner of the province, with donors listing postal codes fromEstevan,La Ronge,Saskatoon, Swift Current and Regina.

WATCH|More than half of convoy donations came from U.S., hacked data shows:

More than half of convoy donations came from U.S., hacked data shows

3 years ago

Duration 2:01

A CBC News analysis of hacked data about those who donated to the protest convoys through GiveSendGo found more than half of the donations came from the U.S. Its raising concern about foreign funding of political activity.

The largest single donation from Saskatchewan totalled $15,000. The next largest was $4,090.

CBC News is withholding names of individuals listed in the leaked dataunless it isable to reach them for comment and independentlyconfirm their donation.