BREAKING: CBC uses leaked GiveSendGo info to contact donors

The Canadian Press / Patrick Doyle

*Update: A previous version of this story stated that donations over $25.00 were considered in the freezing of accounts. This amount was removed as it could not be verified. (Feb.24, 2022)

On Sunday, Feb 13, the crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo, which had raised more than $8.7 million for the “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa, was hacked.

This left the personal information of 92,845 donors extremely vulnerable, including real names (as listed on credit cards or debit cards), personal emails, locations and other assorted details.

The hackers have not publicly revealed their identity, but those who visited the website on Sunday night saw a surprising redirect message to “GiveSendGone.wtf”, which played a video and song from the Disney movie “Frozen”.

The message included a long message calling the donors “grifters and hatriots”, making mention to the “Jan. 6th insurrection in the U.S.”

Making things more tense for convoy supporters, on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, deeming the convoy protests illegal and threatening the freezing of accounts for those who have donated to the convoy.

Today, Rebel News discovered that the CBC used the leaked data to contact convoy donors, telling them they are “working on a story about the people who allegedly contributed funds…according to the public release of hacked data from the site.”

The email, sent by CBC Ottawa’s David Fraser and Guy Quenneville, also claims that the CBC is “interested in interviewing you both about why you may have donated to the cause, but also how you feel about having your personal information leaked.”

They state they are not “automatically identifying” the email recipient by name in their story, but are verifying with people first that they did, indeed, contribute to the cause.

Tensions are ramping up very quickly in Canada, especially for those who are now considered, essentially, funders of “terrorism”.

Is this ethical behaviour for a taxpayer-funded news outlet (or any news outlet, for that matter) to be engaging in?

Unlike the CBC, Rebel News will not be publishing any details or identities of those affected by this GiveSendGo data breach.

Rebel News reporters are covering the other side of the story at protests across Canada. Please follow www.ConvoyReports.com to keep updated on breaking stories and to support our journalists.

Unlike the legacy media, Rebel News doesn’t accept taxpayer funding. We rely on generous donations from people like yourself. If you’d like to support our journalism, please consider a financial donation, and sharing our content! Thank you for all those who have supported us thus far.