Hacked convoy donation data shows concentration of donors from southern Manitoba

An analysis of postal codes associated with donations to the Freedom Convoy show the highest concentration of Manitoba's donations came from the province's south — specifically, the Steinbach, Altona and Morden-Winkler areas.

The data — hacked illegally and released publicly late Sunday evening — shows approximately 1,200 people with Manitoba postal codes donated about $145,000 US through the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo.

About 20 per cent of those donations came from addresses located in the three postal codes that cover the southeastern part of Manitoba.

Chris Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, said he was not surprised by what the data revealed.

"These are regions where, as I understand it from health reports, that vaccination rates have not been as high as other parts of the province," he said.

"This is the area where we've seen public protests like we saw in Steinbach … so I'm not surprised this kind of fits into some of the news we've been reading about lately."

Doctors, profs, business owners donate to convoy

A higher concentration of donations was also found in pockets of Manitoba such as East St. Paul, the postal code that covers the Brandon area and in the eastern Manitoba postal code that covers Beausejour and Oakbank.

In Winnipeg and the rest of Manitoba, the donations were scattered throughout various postal codes.

The names revealed showed a wide range of donors in Manitoba including medical doctors, university professors, business owners, a retired fire chief and the leader of a non-profit.

The data includes names, locations, dollar amounts, personal email addresses and even the credit card companies used for each transaction. 

The donor could also write in a message of support to display.

"Keep on guys. Don't give up...millions of Canadians are behind you," read one message.

"'Oh CANADA...True North Strong and FREE!!!...we stand on guard for Thee!!!' Trudeau MUST GO! Stand on guard for Freedom! Love Truckers, Love CANADA!" read another.

Data publicly available

CBC News reached out to several people whose names appeared on the list, but they declined to speak to their reasons for donating. 

One person told CBC that someone in their household used their credit card to make the donation, and another said they had no knowledge of the transaction.

The data became publicly available on Sunday night after users who tried to access GiveSendGo were rerouted to a site that began playing a video of the Disney movie Frozen. 

 A link to the hacked donor data appeared below the video.

GiveSendGo said that when its site was attacked, its security team shut it down "to prevent further illegal actions." It said no credit card numbers were leaked and no money was stolen.

The Christian crowdfunding site became the fundraising platform of choice after GoFundMe shut the fundraising campaign down.

CBC has not been able to independently confirm if all the people on the list did in fact donate to the Freedom Convoy.

Donations reflect politics in Manitoba

Adams said the leaked donor metrics follow a pattern seen in the recent federal election. The People's Party of Canada (PPC) ran on an anti-vaccine mandate platform and garnered support from voters in these areas.

In Portage-Lisgar, held by interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen, the PPC got almost 22 per cent of the votes in 2021 and came in second in the riding.

It also reflects the political divide between rural and urban Manitoba, Adams said.

"If you look at how political parties are supported in the province, there's quite a bit of difference between Winnipeg and the non-urban south part of the province," he said

The Manitoba donations — compiled by postal codes that begin with an R — range from as low as $5 US to as high as $2,000. 

However, that pales in comparison to some of the donors from outside of Manitoba — some of which were over $10,000 US.

Of the $8.4 million US in donations detailed in the data, $4.3 million US — or 52.5 per cent of the total — came from Canada, while $3.6 million US (44.2 per cent) came from the U.S.