GoFundMe for anti-vaccine mandate raises over a million dollars
By Matthew Hillier, Staff Writer
A GoFundMe page called the Freedom Convoy, made in response to vaccine mandates imposed on Canadian truckers, has started to gain attention with more than $2.6 million raised at the time of writing.
Freedom Convoy, an organisation founded by Medicine Hat native Tamara Lich, aims to drive through Canada and protest in Ottawa to raise awareness for their opposition to the vaccine mandates put on cross-border truck drivers. The GoFundMe page, also set up by Lich, states that they will use the funds raised to reimburse truckers for fuel and lodgings on their trip.
Descriptions of the protest written by Lich call people to end these mandates for, “Future generations and to regain our lives back.” This movement seems to mostly take issue with the mandate and not with the vaccine itself as it claims the decision to mandate vaccines is, “Destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries and livelihoods.”
The organisation says little to nothing regarding the viability or legitimacy of vaccines and focuses on what it claims is “government overreach” in its GoFundMe page.
According to a now-deleted LinkedIn page set up by Lich, she is an active board member of the Maverick Party and previously a member of an Alberta group of Yellow Vest activists that aligned themselves with the policies of the french protest group with the same name.
However, she has distanced herself after her local chapter made death threats against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Maverick Party is a separatist movement that aims to have Alberta leave the ten provinces and three territories that make up Canada. The group was previously known as Wexit Canada.
The party is currently pushing for five legislative processes to be implemented that are in accordance with their nationalist policies. However, if they are not implemented they will push for Alberta’s removal from the country. They are generally also in opposition to federal involvement in Albertan policy making.
The page originally had $2 million as its goal but with the current support they’re receiving, they’re now shooting for $3 million. However, time will tell if the money is ever transferred as GoFundMe has policies in place that prevent the site from hosting organisations or products that are against public health measures.
Last year, a fundraising page to gather funds for a lawsuit against public health mandates that raised $180,000 dollars was shut down for violating GoFundMe’s “vaccine misinformation” policies. Due to GoFundMe’s structure, funds can be taken out at any time and be transferred from anything to a charity to a single person, even if that page is shut down by the website.
The sole person that would be able to withdraw this money to compensate the truckers participating in the protest is Lich herself.
This is certainly not the first and probably not the last anti-mandate protest as several GoFundMe pages have been opened on truckers’ behalf for similar reasons. Lich has been silent on social media since the start of the campaign except for the Facebook page responsible for organising this event.
Her influence in the vaccine mandate debate hasn’t been ignored, as multiple Twitter users have reportedly flagged Lich’s page with reports and have attempted to get the attention of GoFundMe staff regarding policy violations.
But even if the page is shut down, Lich is well past her $2 million goal.
The convoy stopped in Calgary on the night of Jan. 23 and left for Regina the following day. The convoy will arrive at its intended destination on Jan. 29 according to one of their promotional materials.
Although the movement has picked up steam, the money raised for the protest hasn’t had a public distribution yet. However, according to the group’s Facebook page, tens of thousands of vehicles will be attending and since the average cost for a semi-truck’s fuel from Vancouver to Ottawa is almost $5,500, if even a quarter attending are semi-trucks, over $13 million will be needed in fuel alone.
Lich’s affiliation with the Maverick Party has brought into question her motives for funding this movement. The scale of the convoy and the GoFundMe will most likely be truly determined on their arrival in Ottawa on Jan. 29.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has publicly disavowed the Freedom Convoy.
“The vast majority of the Canadian trucking industry is vaccinated with the overall industry vaccination rate among truck drivers closely mirroring that of the general public,” the statement said. “The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) does not support and strongly disapproves of any protests on public roadways, highways and bridges.”
