MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Did Trudeau really freeze account of a Freedom Convoy donor mom? Truth behind MPs tweet

Single mom on minimum wage donated $50 and has her account frozen claims Canadian MP, 'probably hard to reach in Narnia,' mocks net

On February 20, 2022, Canadian MP Mark Strahl tweeted that a single mom on minimum wage had her bank account frozen for donating $50 to the Freedom Convoy. "This is who Justin Trudeau is actually targeting with his Emergencies Act orders," Strahl claimed and was quickly joined by a large band of protestors against the Canadian Prime Minister. However, a bit of digging has revealed that Strahl's claims might not actually be true.

The claim was made after Trudeau decided to invoke the Emergencies Act to clear protestors, who have paralyzed several cities in Canada. The move is a last-ditch effort after several other moves have failed. On February 10, the Ontario government attempted to freeze GiveSendGo donations, but the company refused to comply with the order. A court then ruled that the protest had to end, which led to police action that has finally cleared most of the protestors. 

RELATED ARTICLES

What is Freedom Convoy? Here's why Canadian truckers are protesting in Ottawa

Calls grow to replace Evangeline Lilly in MCU after actress supports Ottawa truckers

On February 14, Trudeau decided to invoke the act, which does allow Canadian law enforcement to freeze bank accounts without a court order, which many conservatives including Tucker Carlson have called "draconian" and equated to a dictatorship.

Net attacks Trudeau over MP's tweet

"Briane is a single mom from Chilliwack working a minimum wage job. She gave $50 to the convoy when it was 100% legal. She hasn’t participated in any other way. Her bank account has now been frozen. This is who Justin Trudeau is actually targeting with his Emergencies Act orders," Strahl tweeted. He did not give out the woman's full name, but it was enough to invoke a series of angry responses. 

"Because some trucks are parked at a farm somewhere, Trudeau needs to freeze the account of a single mom in BC. He wants this power to be permanent," one user tweeted. Another said, "If the Senate passes the invocation of this Act, that is being used to make single mom's like Briane homeless & starve her kids - because they angered Trudeau - this country is lost for good." A third claimed, "Hitler would be proud of Trudeau!"

Strahl's tweet was also retweeted over 14k times and received over 32k likes. However, it might not be entirely true. In a series of follow-up tweets the next day, Strahl said he would "keep working with Briane to resolve this matter." He also added, "To those of you demanding more details on Briane, having seen what has been said about her online today and what has been done to other convoy donors in the last weeks I am not going to help you dox her."

Does Briane exist?

Several fact-checkers and experts online were quick to slam Strahl's tweet, hitting back with claims that may indicate it was a false claim. Journalist Dale Smith said "The RCMP doesn’t have the surveillance of transactions, or the time and resources to find $20 and $50 donors. It defies credulity." He also noted that only 76 accounts were suspended so far, and all reportedly belong to those who participated in the protests, and not donated. 

Backing up that claim, the RCMP themselves issued a statement saying, "the list that was provided to financial institutions included identities of individuals who were influencers in the illegal protest in Ottawa, and owners and/or drivers of vehicles who did not want to leave the area impacted by the protest. At no time, did we provide a list of donors to financial institutions."

One Twitter user, who claimed to have reviewed all GiveSendGo donations said "No one named Briane donated to the givesendgo," and added, "There was a Brianne from Canada (another from the US) who donated, but she's from NS." While we could not verify this information, but RCMP's statement should suffice to indicate that at least in part, Strahl was lying about Briane's situation. 

It led some users to troll him by saying, "She is probably hard to reach in Narnia..." and "Wow. No level too low to stoop to for Conservatives these days." Another mocked, "Perhaps it's Nicki Minaj's cousin's friend. Poor girl, first her fiance gets swollen testicles and then her account gets frozen."

So far, Strahl has not acknowledged the RCMP's statement or provided any proof that Briane does in fact exist.