The CBC has publicly retracted a news article about the trucker Freedom Convoy that falsely suggested that foreigners were the primary source of support for the protests.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the claim was made by the CBC radio program The World This Hour.
“On February 10 in a report about the protest convoy CBC Radio’s The World This Hour incorrectly said GoFundMe ended a fundraiser for the protesters over questionable donations to the group,” a statement by the public broadcaster wrote.
Unfortunately there was no explanation provided by CBC of what was incorrect about the statement.
The CBC ran articles that claimed so called “extremists” and “foreign money” funded the trucker protest. Even though that claim was shut down by FINTRAC.
Reporters at the outlet based their claims on a so-called “exclusive analysis” of donations.
A Feb. 10 article titled “Convoy Protest Received Hundreds Of Donations That Appeared To Be From Abroad” claimed that “donations identified by CBC News are likely only a fraction of all the donations made by people outside of Canada.”
“In recent days questions have emerged about how the protesters raised so much money so quickly and where it came from. Before GoFundMe shut down the protest convoy’s crowdfunding page and announced donors would be refunded it had attracted more than 120,000 donations amounting to more than $10 million.”
According to another CBC report, anonymous contributors made up “at least one third” of the contributions.
Foreigners, however, made up a very small portion of the donors, according to GoFundMe executives who testified before a Commons public safety committee on March 3.
“Our records show 88% of donated funds originated in Canada and 86% of donors were from Canada,” said GoFundMe president Juan Benitez.
