According to a report from the Chicago Reader, local police officers and firefighters were among Americans who made donations to the Canadian truck convoy that has clogged the streets in Ottawa over objections to Covid-19 masks and vaccines among other grievances.
Police in the Canadian capital have been battling with the truckers who have refused to move and brought traffic in the city to a standstill leading to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declaring a state of emergency.
According to the report, "About 200 Chicagoans donated more than $13,000 to a fundraiser for truckers who blockaded the Canadian capital and key border crossings to protest COVID restrictions, according to data released by the nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) More than $900 of that was apparently donated by a dozen Chicago Police Department (CPD) and Chicago Fire Department (CFD) employees, one of whom used a city email address on the donation form."
After noting that hackers breached GiveSendGo, the clearinghouse for donations for the convoy after other donation sites were shut down, the Reader's Jim Daley wrote, "The Reader reviewed the data, which includes names, email addresses, ZIP codes, and other identifying information of donors as well as the amounts each gave, and compared the lists to a database of current city employees."
"Nine donations totaling more than $400 apparently came from fire department employees. The largest was $110, from a donor who is listed as a firefighter in the city’s employee database," the report added.
The Reader report adds they contacted one firefighter who used his official city email and he did not respond, but a spokesperson for the city "referred the Reader to a department policy which states members will not be disciplined for engaging in lawful activities involving the advocacy of ideas or the practice of any belief."