The CBC has publicly retracted a news story about the trucker Freedom Convoy that erroneously claimed that support for the protests had largely come from foreigners.
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.
No further explanation was provided by the CBC on why the statement was incorrect.
CBC has parrotted the idea that extremists and foreign sources were behind the trucker protests despite evidence showing otherwise.
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.”
Another story by CBC claimed that “at least one third” of the donations were by anonymous donors.
However, according to GoFundMe executives who testified before a March 3 Commons public safety committee, foreigners made up a very small portion of the donors.
“Our records show 88% of donated funds originated in Canada and 86% of donors were from Canada,” said GoFundMe president Juan Benitez.
