Contrary to claims, local judge not on list of convoy donors

By COLLIN GALLANT on February 17, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Amateur investigators on social media have misidentified an Alberta judge as a donor who funded the blockade protest in Ottawa, according to officials with Alberta Provincial Court.

A large electronic file of hacked data from the fundraising website GiveSendGo has circulated on the internet. It provides 93,000 names of donors, their email addresses and general locations in mainly Canada and the United States, but some in Europe as well.

That site became an alternate venue for those looking to support the anti-mandate, anti-health restriction message of the convoy in Ottawa once the more well-known crowdfunding site GoFundMe froze its fundraising campaign.

A number of social media accounts in Medicine Hat, as well as one media outlet, reported that one local name on the list attached to a $50 donation is the name of a provincial court judge.

That however is “100 per cent, definitively not the same person,” said Olav Rockne, the communications officer with Alberta Provincial Court, told the News.

He said he became aware of the accusations early on Wednesday and officials have determined that the two individuals share the same, very common first and last names, but have different middle names and the judge in question’s address does not align with the information.

“It’s a random coincidence, just two people who have the same name,” said Rockne.

When the name is put into a search engine, the results are topped by legal notices and court rulings.

The News is not identifying either person involved as it’s not clear if the information is accurate, or if any law has been broken.

Several dozen names on the list are attached to a location of the immediate Medicine Hat area, providing donations ranging from $5 to $1,600.