Canada's Convoy 6. Influence of Foreign Media, Politicians and Money
"The scale of this one is unprecedented"
It was clear that there was foreign involvement in the convoy, especially American. Convoy organizers, including Pat King, were appearing on Fox News. When foreign donations were restricted by GoFundMe, Republican politicians in the US (Florida and Texas) protested that their donations to the Convoy were not allowed.
Prominent GOP commenter Candace Owens called for the US to invade Canada, and so did GOP Congresswoman Lauren Boebert.
The Trump family, including Donald Trump, spoke favourably about the protestors.
It is extraordinary that a trucker protest in Canada could achieve that sort of earned media.
The protest also immediately raised millions of dollars - making the convoy, quite literally “paid protestors.”
When funding to the convoy through GoFundMe was suspended for violation of the company’s terms of service - and the fact that a convoy whose organizers had been making violent threats against politicians, and the Prime Minister in particular, for years.
The international fundraising for the convoy was described as “unprecedented.”
On multiple crowdfunding platforms, people from around the globe — often directed to the cause by American far-right influencers like Dan Bongino and Ben Shapiro — have collectively donated millions of dollars in support of the Canadian movement and started similar crowdfunding campaigns for like-minded protests in U.S. states and European countries.
"[R]ightwing U.S. political figures and content creators … really gave it a boost that made it global,” said Ciaran O’Connor, an analyst from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that tracks online extremism and which has been following the Canadian protests against the Covid-19 restrictions.
“Donations from abroad are quite a common part of any large crowdfunding campaign,” he added. “But the scale of this one is unprecedented.”
Since late January, the likes of Glenn Beck and Mike Huckabee have used their large online followings to spread the word about the truckers’ convoy, garnering tens of thousands of engagements including likes, shares and comments on social media posts in favor of the protests, based on data from Crowdtangle, a social media analytics firm owned by Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
… In a post from late January, Eric Trump questioned why media outlets were not discussing the Canadian protests. Franklin Graham, an American evangelical leader, praised the convoy in a post that read: “I love these guys — Canadian truckers standing for freedom.”
Analysis from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found multiple U.S. right-wing groups, including those associated with the Tea Party Movement and others opposing U.S. vaccine mandates, had donated to the now-defunct GoFundMe page, as well as similar groups from Europe and Australia.
That international backing, in part, was driven by several U.S.-focused white supremacist channels on Telegram, which had repeatedly shared a link to the GoFundMe page. On 4Chan, an online message board favored by extremists groups, the same link had been posted at least 25 times between Jan. 28 and Feb. 5, based on research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue."
Fox News reported that Congressional Republicans wanted to call for an oversight hearing.
EXCLUSIVE: Republican leaders are calling for a congressional hearing and seeking more information on GoFundMe's decision to block donations for the Canadian trucker's Freedom Convoy – arguing that the move amounts to another attack by Big Tech on free speech.
"We are concerned about the growing trend of Big Tech’s increasing refusal to permit a level playing field in the marketplace of ideas, instead actively censoring conservative viewpoints while promoting far-left causes, especially where millions of dollars in crowdsourced funds are potentially misappropriated," read a letter from House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Oversight Committee ranking member James Comer, R-Ky.
Sent Thursday afternoon, the letter asked Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Majority Whip James Clyburn, R-S.C., for a hearing examining GoFundMe's decision and the "evolution of its policies on diverting donated funds to other causes deemed by the company to be 'credible and established.’”
The Attorney Generals of Texas and Missouri both declared that they were opening investigations into GoFundMe.
All of this is an outrageous intrusion into Canadian sovereignty.
It has to be said that Canada is a self-governing democracy with its own constitution and laws, and U.S. laws and its constitution do not apply here. The Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms apply. Canada has different rules around freedom of expression, and as Canadians we do not have to tolerate the foreign financing of paid protestors who are using drastic methods to extract dangerous concessions from our governments.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The convoy was a deliberate political effort to overthrow the government of Canada, holding entire communities hostage while imposing dangerous economic blackmail.
There is no question that the event was planned months in advance of any mandates being imposed. It was the Canadian version of January 6, 2021, when people stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an effort to overturn the results of an election.
Not only does Canada have a problem with extremism, we have a problem acknowledging that we have a problem with extremism.
There is no question that people organizing the convoy were affiliated with groups with a history of making violent death threats to the Prime Minister for years prior.
Many Conservative politicians and media have ignored this extremism, and placated or validated the conspiracy-based views. This is part and parcel of toxic partisanship that treats political opponents as enemies, and treats the end as justifying the means.
The convoy represents all-out ideological assault by extremists on the values and ideals of democracy, freedom and the rule of law for which we shed blood together. Canadians and Americans, especially in WW1 and, WW2, especially D-Day and the liberation of Europe.
There is no question that there was foreign money involved, and that politicians like former Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall were involved in advising convoy organizers.
This was an attempted coup - it was stated by the leaders of the convoy in Ottawa that they were demanding that the Prime Minister and the federal government be replaced.
As to the question - did the Emergencies Act have to be declared? The answer is yes.
The Emergencies Act was declared because provincial governments asked for help, and because they did not want to accept responsibility for the mess they helped make.
Provincial governments from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba made a great show of lifting basic pandemic health precautions and caving into the convoy. They voiced their support for an organization whose leadership raised millions of dollars with the goal of getting Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba out of Canada, in order to join the U.S.
The current talk of “independence” from the Federal Government by Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith, Saskatchewan’s Premier Scott Moe, and previously by Heather Stefanson in Manitoba are all still catering to people who want to break up the country and were willing to use threats and blackmail to get what they want, in defiance of the rule of law and democratic norms.
We need to recognize this for what it is, and challenge it.
There are practical measures that can be taken to de-escalate the situation, because ripping the country apart is not going to make things better. It will create a disaster. This needs to be taken seriously.
First, we actually have to take concrete measures to provide people with economic relief.
The other is that we have to find ways to reduce the ways in which social media can be weaponized by bad actors. This is not a question of censorship. It is a question of holding people and companies to account, as legally responsible. That is not a radical proposition: it is a proposition that we ensure that no one is above the law.
This is also not new. Just as freedom of action doesn’t allow you to commit crimes or assault people, freedom of speech doesn’t allow you to spread harmful lies, or to engage in criminal conspiracy, or libel.
Addressing Disinformation by Making Online Companies Accountable for What they Share
Disinformation runs rampant on the internet because “platforms” have no liability for what is said on them.
Most every person and corporation in the world is liable for when statements they make defame or destroy someone - except internet companies.
This has to change. The platforms that publish disinformation need to be held liable in court for what they do - all of them - just as every other person and company already has to, including all media outlets.
This is not a quick fix, but it is part of what must be done. Freedom of speech is fundamentally about the freedom to disagree about ideas, not about attacking people or hate mongering, or manipulation.
Governments need to consider whether they will advertise on platforms that spread disinformation - including social media and Google, Facebook, Twitter and more.
There was a time when no government would advertise on a platform that prominently featured holocaust denial or that allowed extremists to organize. Now we have no choice. This is not freedom - it is anarchy.
The rule of law is at stake - because no one can be above the law. It has to apply to everyone. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but ignorance of the law is also putting our democracy at stake.
We also need to take both desperation and extremism seriously. Especially when it’s knocking at our door.
We believe there should be further inquiries into the foreign financing of the convoy and especially an investigation into the spread of disinformation, conspiracy theories and bad actors.
Companies like Cambridge Analytica, which was implicated in the manipulation and radicalization of individuals in a number of elections, have made it their business to use algorithms that “sniff out” and discover people with a propensity for radicalization, then target them with propaganda to influence them, as well as bots or fake followers to provide them with positive feedback.
We are in a new age of manipulation and disruptive propaganda. It will take enormous energy and effort to recognize it and combat it.
A century ago, Yeats wrote “The Second Coming” - in the aftermath of the First World War and the last global pandemic, he wrote that “The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.”
We return once again to the conclusions of John Barry;
“So the final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that those who occupy positions of authority must lessen the panic that can alienate all within a society. Society cannot function if it is every man for himself. By definition, civilization cannot survive that.
Those in authority must retain the public’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best.
A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart.”
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