The Canadian truckers “Freedom Convoy” protest over a Covid vaccination mandate has gone on all week. Ottowa residents are fed up, writes Ian Austen for the New York Times:
“I’m receiving hundreds — and I’m not exaggerating — hundreds of emails telling me: ‘I went out to get groceries, I got yelled at, I got harassed. I got followed down the street, I’m so afraid that I can’t go out,’” Catherine McKenney, the city councilor for the area, told me on Thursday afternoon. “The residents in this downtown have just been completely abandoned during a national crisis and an occupation of our city. And there just is no urgency from the federal government, provincial government and, quite frankly, even our own police.”
[…]
“The horn blaring is really meant to terrorize this community — and it’s working,” said Mx. McKenney, who will be running for mayor later this year.
Three women were celebrated by the neighborhood as local heroes of sorts when they stood in the path of a heavy truck lumbering down their street in Centretown, responding to each blast of a truck horn by turning their thumbs down.
The truckers have pissed off GoFundMe too. “We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity,” the crowdfunding site messaged Friday in explaining it was taking down the truckers’ page for violating its terms of service.
BBC last night:
GoFundMe says it will withhold millions of dollars raised for Canadian truckers protesting against vaccine mandates, citing police reports of violence.
The Freedom Convoy has been rallying since last weekend, and more protests are expected in Toronto and Ottawa.
In a statement, the crowdfunding website said it would withhold the donations already made, and refund donors who fill out a request form.
Newsweek this morning:
Conservatives have reacted with fury after GoFundMe canceled a fundraiser for Canadian truckers protesting against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate and said it would refund all contributions.
The fundraising effort had raised C$10 million—around $7.9 million—and C$1 million had already been distributed to the organizers of the so-called Freedom Convoy before GoFundMe took the decision to stop the fundraiser.
Citing “donor feedback,” the crowdfunding site issued a correction early today, saying it would “refund all contributions directly: donors do not need to submit a request.”
But the rage engines had already fired up.
Ezra Levant, publisher of Canadian right-wing news site Rebel News, tweeted: “At the request of Trudeau, @GoFundMe has just stolen $9,000,000 from the truckers. Rather than automatically refunding it to the donors, they say they’re going to give it to groups of their own choosing. What a windfall for Black Lives Matter, Greenpeace and Planned Parenthood!”
Clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson retweeted Levant, commenting: “This is far worse than mere theft. Government-sanctioned appropriation from citizens funding lawful opposition. This sets a very very dark precedent.”
Government-sanctioned appropriation?
Donald Trump Jr. wants U.S. attorneys general to investigate GoFundMe.
He wasn’t alone in suggesting investigations. Tom Fitton, president of conservative activist group Judicial Watch, tweeted: “State attorney generals and other relevant state officials should examine @GoFundMe’s $9 million shell game that victimized the Canadian truckers and their supporters who gave money in good faith.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is late to the outrage party. She posted a video (somewhere) this morning (after the automatic refund announcement) in which she calls GoFundMe “corporate communists.” Twice, for emphasis. “They should seriously be arrested.”
Greene is just “seriously” stringing together words off the refrigerator magnet set she got from Newt Gingrich.
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