Canadians are not letting cancel culture get in the way of their ability to support the Freedom Convoy’s protests against Covid-19 vaccine and mask mandates for truck drivers.
After GoFundMe decided to freeze $10 million raised for the thousands of truckers protesting in Ottawa, GiveSendGo, an online Christian fundraising platform, stepped up to help the truckers receive donations.
“The time for political overreach is over,” organizers wrote on their GiveSendGo fundraising page. “Our current government is implementing rules and mandates that are destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries and livelihoods.”
The Canadian Freedom Convoy launched their GiveSendGo donations page on Friday to help raise money for the protesting truckers’ food, fuel, and lodging costs.
“It’s a small price to pay for our freedoms,” the organization wrote. “We thank you all for your Donations and know that you are helping reshape this once beautiful country back to the way it was.”
GiveSendGo has received nearly $6 million in donations for the truckers as of Tuesday.
Rumble, the popular alternative video platform, also offered to help GiveSendGo after the fundraising platform reportedly struggled with denial-of-service cyber-attacks from perpetrators trying to disrupt their website.
“Rumble would be happy to help in anyway we can,” the video platform tweeted on Saturday. “We have equipment and engineers on standby.”
GoFundMe announced last week that they would withhold the millions raised for the Canadian Freedom Convoy, calling the truckers’ peaceful protests in Ottawa a violent and illegal “occupation” of the capital city.
The California-based fundraising platform also told donors to submit a refund form, or their donations would be given away to another charity. GoFundMe later reversed their decision and announced they would automatically refund donors after receiving backlash.
GoFundMe sparked even more criticism over their condemnation of the truckers’ so-called “violence,” while supporting Seattle’s CHOP (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest), which was a violent takeover of the city, just two years earlier.
“Double-standard?” tweeted Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, sharing a screenshot of GoFundMe’s support of CHOP.
Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., announced that he was going to investigate the “deceptive practices” of GoFundMe.
“It is a fraud for @gofundme to commandeer $9 million in donations sent to support truckers and give it to causes of their own choosing,” DeSantis tweeted shortly after GoFundMe reversed their policy and said they would refund donations.
“I will work with [Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody] to investigate these deceptive practices—these donors should be given a refund,” added DeSantis.
The Republican attorneys general from Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, and West Virginia have also said they plan to investigate whether GoFundMe deceptively defrauded donors in their states.
