Letter sent to parliamentarians warning of doxing ahead of trucker convoy: ‘Go somewhere safe’

Canada’s Sergeant-at-Arms has sent a note to Parliament warning them of doxing ahead of the trucker convoy en route to Ottawa.

“A demonstration, led by Freedom Convoy 2022, is expected to take place in the surrounding areas of Parliament Hill starting on Friday, Jan. 28,” writes Patrick McDonell.

“News outlets have indicated that demonstrations may also take place at Members’ constituency offices or residences within the National Capital Region. Solicitations were issued to the online community for Members’ residential addresses in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. This is known as doxing — a process of finding and publishing personal information about a particular individual on the Internet, usually with malicious intent.”

Police in Ottawa has said they are planning for as many as 2,000 demonstrators in the city on Saturday. Local police have warned city residents to avoid travelling to the nation’s capital over the weekend and to be prepared for delays if they do.

Canada’s Sergeant-at-Arms is reminding MPs not to get involved in the rally and to go somewhere safe, as well as to avoid physical altercations, “even if provoked.”

“Close and lock all exterior doors [and] advise the local authorities of any demonstration and, once it is safe to do so, notify the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms and Corporate Security.”

The Sgt-at-Arms has sent a note to MPs warning them of doxing ahead of the trucker protest. There have been attempts to post online the home addresses of MPs in the Capital Region. Warns them to go “somewhere safe” if there is a protest outside their home or office #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/8DQhdIxxW5

— Cormac Mac Sweeney (@cmaconthehill) January 27, 2022

McDonell is also encouraging MPs to refrain from posting personal information on social media amidst recent attempts by members of the convoy to share and post the home addresses of MPs online.

“Canada Unity” is the leading group organizing the freedom convoy. It has posted online a “memorandum of understanding” for the protest, not only seeking an end to all vaccine mandates, but they also want the governor-general and the senate to replace the Justin Trudeau government and the house of commons with a so-called “citizens committee.”

The movement, which began in British Columbia days earlier, has been picking up participants across the country, with local truckers joining in at different points.

Earlier this week, GoFundMe announced it had frozen access to funds raised by the trucker convoy, stating that fundraisers need to be transparent about the distribution of money before it can be released.

The website now says it has released an initial $1 million to the convoy organizers.

“The organizer has provided a clear distribution plan for funds being used to cover fuel costs of participants,” said a GoFundMe spokesperson. “We will continue to work with the organizer on the release of funds remaining after participants are reimbursed.”

The GoFundMe page for the ‘Freedom Convoy’ has raised nearly $7 million.

The federal government ended truckers’ exemption to the vaccine mandate on Jan. 15, meaning Canadian truck drivers need to be fully vaccinated if they want to avoid a two-week quarantine when they cross into Canada from the U.S.

In a packed mall parking lot north of Toronto, supporters threw cash and food up to truckers in their vehicles on Thursday, while others held up signs protesting the government as transport trucks gradually rolled out.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance, which has condemned the convoy protest, says more than 85 per cent of the 120,000 Canadian truck drivers who regularly traverse the border are vaccinated, but that up to 16,000 may be sidelined due to the new restriction, exacerbating supply chain problems.

With files from Cormac Mac Sweeney and The Canadian Press