The Freedom Convoy (French: Convoi de la liberté), was a series of protests and blockades across Canada in early 2022, initially organized to oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers. The movement quickly expanded to protest all COVID-19 restrictions and mandates. Beginning on January 22, 2022, hundreds of vehicles departed from various locations across Canada, converging in Ottawa on January 29 for a rally at Parliament Hill, joined by thousands of pedestrian protesters. Parallel demonstrations occurred in provincial capitals and at key border crossings with the United States.
The protests followed the end of vaccine mandate exemptions for cross-border truckers, which had been in place to mitigate supply chain disruptions. Approximately 85% of Canadian truck drivers serving cross-border routes were vaccinated, but the new restrictions potentially affected up to 16,000 drivers. Protesters called for the repeal of all COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, citing concerns over personal freedoms and government overreach.
Many officials and businesses raised concerns about the economic impact of the blockades, the demonstrations drew both domestic and international support, including from members of the Conservative Party of Canada and Republican politicians in the United States. The federal government responded by invoking the Emergencies Act on February 14, 2022, granting extraordinary powers to law enforcement. By February 21, most blockades and protests had been dismantled through large-scale police operations. As part of these measures, the government froze bank accounts linked to protest organizers. Following the seizure, some supporters turned to Bitcoin to make donations to the convoy, citing its resistance to government control.
The convoy drew a varied response from the public and various organizations. Trucking groups criticized the protests, asserting most participants were not truckers. Allegations of involvement by far-right groups and calls for the federal government to be overthrown were also raised, and concerns emerged about the seizure of weapons near a blockade in Coutts, Alberta. Supporters saw the movement as a grassroots stand for liberty against government overreach.
Background
Protest goals
The protest called for the end of vaccine mandates in Canada during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Freedom Convoy's spokesperson Benjamin Dichter stated on Fox News that, "we want to get rid of the vaccine mandates and the [vaccine] passports. And that passport, that's the really concerning one."
The organizers of the original mid-January crowdsourced fundraising campaign on GoFundMe, Tamara Lich and Dichter, both of whom are not long-haul truckers, described the goal of the truck convoy, from across Canada to the nation's capital, as a demonstration against the newly implemented January 15 federal cross-border COVID-19 vaccine mandate, targeting long-haul truck drivers, according to a January 28, 2022 CTV News article.
Several protesters voiced opposition to perceived authoritarianism and corruption by Justin Trudeau, stating they wanted him "out of office", while others said, "this is not an anti-vaccination movement, this is a freedom movement." For example, Canada Unity's Ontario organizer for the convoy, Jason LaFace, said that the intent of the Canada Unity protest was to dissolve the federal government. Many of the restrictions that the protesters objected to were under provincial jurisdiction.
Initial events and the start of the protest
On November 16, 2021, Canada Border Services Agency officers refused truck driver Brigitte Belton entry to Canada at the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel due to her failure to wear a face mask.
At the October 2022 Public Order Emergency Commission, commission lawyer Stephen Armstrong stated that Belton vented her frustration via her TikTok feed before using the platform to connect with Chris Barber and later initiated the planning of the Canada convoy protest.
Armstrong said that Belton, Chris Barber, and James Bauder all took part in a Facebook live event on January 13, 2022, to plan the protest's route and logistics. The next day, Tamara Lich started the fundraiser for the protest.
American influence
Ottawa's police chief, Peter Sloly, described a "significant element" of American involvement in the organization and funding of the convoys. Some of the donors participating in the protest's GoFundMe campaign were from the United States, and many used false names or remained anonymous. CBC News and The New York Times described the protests as a "cause célèbre" for the American right. The convoys and protests were widely praised and promoted by American conservative political figures, who have been accused of propagating exaggerated claims about the protest, or making unfounded claims about the roles and actions of Canadian authorities and politicians with respect to the protest. The protest was endorsed by Trump, who, during his first presidency, regularly clashed with Trudeau over policy differences. In response to the convoy, Trump referred to Trudeau as a "far-left lunatic" who "has destroyed Canada", and invited protesters to organize on Truth Social, his social network. Some commentators, for example, have called the Freedom Convoy an example of Canadian Trumpism.
Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of Canada and future prime minister, strongly criticized the foreign involvement in "the sedition in Ottawa," describing donors as "foreign funders of an insurrection" who had "interfered in our domestic affairs."
Fundraising
Fundraising started on January 14, 2022, through the crowdsourced fundraising platform GoFundMe. Listed as organizers were Tamara Lich, secretary of the western separatist Maverick Party, and B. J. Dichter, a 2015 federal Conservative Party candidate now associated with the People's Party of Canada. The Maverick Party has denied involvement in the convoy and said it was not the recipient of any funds raised.
The convoy's GoFundMe raised over CA$5 million by January 25. On January 24, GoFundMe stated funds raised would not be released until the fundraising organizers could demonstrate how the funds would be properly distributed. On January 27, GoFundMe released the initial CA$1 million of the funds after the organizers had provided a distribution plan.
On February 2, GoFundMe flagged the fundraiser for review and paused donations, saying it was investigating to ensure the fundraiser was in compliance with the platform's terms of service. The fundraiser had raised CA$10,096,500 from approximately 120,000 donors. On February 3, the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) called on GoFundMe officials to testify before it, to respond to concerns about the origin of the funds raised and to ensure they would not be used to "promote extremism". Members of Parliament also called on the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), Canada's financial intelligence agency, to appear before the committee. CBC News reported that a third of the donations were anonymous or used false names for the publicly visible part of the campaign, attempting to prevent their doxxing, and that commenters on the fundraiser claimed to be from the United States, United Kingdom, and other countries.
On February 4, GoFundMe removed the campaign citing violations of its rules against violence and harassment.
A convoy fundraiser on the fundraising website GiveSendGo, launched after the GoFundMe removal, attracted over $8.2 million as of February 10.
The Attorney General of Ontario sought and was granted an Ontario Superior Court of Justice court order under Section 490.8 of the Criminal Code of Canada against GiveSendGo, to freeze the funds collected from two campaigns, "Freedom Convoy 2022"—US$8.4 million and "Adopt-a-Trucker"—over $686,000, and prohibit their distribution. The court order binds "any and all parties with possession or control over these donations". The Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) voted on February 10 to include a study of the "rise of ideologically motivated extremism". The FINA Committee invited GiveSendGo to testify.
By February 19, at least 76 bank accounts linked to the protests totalling CA$3.2 million were frozen under the Emergencies Act. Most accounts had been unfrozen by February 23.
The RCMP stated that it has not shared donor lists with financial institutions, only the names of those who were "influencers in the illegal protest in Ottawa, and owners and/or drivers of vehicles who did not want to leave the area impacted by the protest."
In response to the efforts taken to block protestors from accessing funds via GoFundMe and other methods, reports surfaced of Bitcoin being used as an alternative source for fundraising. Individual protestors have been reported as receiving bitcoin, sometimes as much as US$8,000 equivalent. Of the protestors and the new interest in bitcoin among average Canadians, the journalist stated, "...institutions can be directed to shut off financial access to enemies of the state. This has traditionally been 'rogue' nations and terrorist outfits, but Canada decided to expand this net to include the hundreds of thousands of normal Canadians who oppose government lockdowns and mandates."
An Ontario Superior Court judge extended the freeze on funds until at least March 9, as of February 28.
Donor list hacked
On February 13, 2022, the GiveSendGo website was hacked and its data on donations was released to journalists and researchers through Distributed Denial of Secrets. Four days later, it was revealed that the hacker who had claimed credit, Aubrey Cottle, had been threatened with murder. In the meantime, GiveSendGo had contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to see if he could be prosecuted. Of the 92,845 donations, 55.7 per cent of donors were from the United States, and 39 per cent from Canada. Many of the American donors' names correspond to the names of Donald Trump donors. The hack also revealed that one $90,000 donation allegedly came from American software billionaire Thomas Siebel. Some members of the Ontario Provincial Police were revealed to have donated to the convoy on GiveSendGo, prompting the OPP to launch an internal conduct investigation.
The American publication Politico reported that American right-wing commentators Dan Bongino and Ben Shapiro were among those directing support to the Canadian movement's crowdfunding websites. Based on research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, from January 28 to February 5, a link to the original Freedom Convoy GoFundMe campaign was posted at least two dozen times on 4chan. According to Politico, white supremacist channels on Telegram also repeatedly shared the link.
Once the Emergencies Act had been invoked, all crowdfunding platforms or payment providers hosting fundraising related to the convoy were required to register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. Banks were given the power to freeze accounts of those suspected to be involved in the blockades.
On March 3, GoFundMe executive Juan Benitez testified to the House of Commons that 86 per cent of the donors to the original GoFundMe campaign were Canadian, and 88 per cent of the donated funds to the original campaign were from Canadians. Benitez added that GoFundMe did not identify any donors to the campaign that were affiliated with terrorist or organized crime groups.
Vaccine mandates and passports
During the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine mandates targeting federal public servants in the Core Public Administration were announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in October 2021. Several government departments and organizations faced forced administrative leaves without pay if they failed to ensure employees were vaccinated by October 30, 2021. Several of the Provinces implemented their own vaccine mandates and passports at their own discretion, separate from the Federal mandates.
In a February 11 Bloomberg News interview with Canadian Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan, Amanda Lang said that "a lot of the mandates being protested here are [not federal but] provincial mandates". O'Regan clarified that "jurisdiction is clearly laid out in our Constitution" which describes the separation of powers at federal, provincial and territorial levels. Under the Constitution Act, health is the responsibility of the provinces and territories. COVID-19-related responses, including those related to vaccinations are the responsibility of provinces and territories which provide free health services in their own jurisdictions. At the federal level, dialogues were undertaken with other Group of Seven nations, the World Health Organization, and the International Civil Aviation Organization regarding passports—"reliable and secure proof of vaccination credentials". Regulations regarding international borders are reciprocal; they are enacted and enforced by both countries which share the border, involving federal agencies including Transport Canada, and in the United States, Homeland Security and CDC.
For example, some provincial and territorial governments imposed "tougher lockdowns" to attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19.