New Zealand occupation fundraising website registered in Canada – Stuff.co.nz

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that a fundraising website for the New Zealand occupation was linked to the Canadian freedom convoy and a website selling merchandise for that protest. This was based on the registration of the websites domains but this was incorrect. This story has been updated to remove the link between the two protests. We regret the error. (Amended 11.05am, February 22, 2022)

The massive operation to feed, power, and cover the occupation of Parliament is partly funded by a website registered in Toronto, Canada.

Protesters in Wellington have confirmed they had been told that any parking tickets could be taken to the occupation information tent, and they would be paid.

While it is not clear where all the money behind the protest has come from, the occupations fundraising page on Monday had individual donations in the hundreds or, in at least one case, $1000. By Monday evening, more than $30,000 had been raised.

Donations are currently being used to fund infrastructure and equipment for the ground team, including the food crew. Examples are kitchen items, generators, marquees, tarpaulins, tools etc, the fundraising site says.

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The New Zealand protest website was first registered on Tuesday last week through Canadian firm Tucows Domains.

While the website was registered in Canada, there is no information available about the person who is running the website.

In an email, an unnamed spokesperson for the Wellington occupation said the Toronto registration is a red herring.

It is simply the registrar's details which are showing to protect the personal information of the domain holder given the harassment that is inevitable in situations like this.

Robert Bumsted/AP

Police move in to clear protesters from downtown Ottawa near Parliament hill on Saturday. Police resumed pushing back protesters on Saturday after arresting more than 100 and towing away vehicles in Canadas besieged capital, and scores of trucks left under the pressure, raising authorities hopes for an end to the three-week protest against the countrys Covid-19 restrictions.

They confirmed the website had received just over $30,000 in donations, and that its obvious that the amounts are modest donations from Kiwis.

Disinformation researcher Byron C. Clark said it is not totally surprising New Zealands protest website is registered in Canada, home of the Freedom Convoy movement.

But he said it is not clear whether there is any link to the Canadian protests.

Protest is really globalised now, and social movements are globalised now, whether theyre progressive movements like Occupy a decade ago, or Black Lives Matter, or Me Too, Clark said. This movement may be a more politically conservative movement, but its just as globalised as any of those others.

Early on in the Wellington protest, a number of Canadian flags were flying in an apparent reference to the similar protest in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.

AP reported that Canadian authorities used emergency powers to seize 76 bank accounts connected to protesters. They contained a total of NZ$3.75 million.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it is not something being contemplated at the moment by the New Zealand government.

Ultimately... those decisions would sit with the police, Ardern said. Theyd have both the ability to investigate, and then enforce.

MONIQUE FORD/Stuff

Police move forward to claim an area for concrete blocks to be laid down while protesters hold their ground.

What weve seen at this stage has been more anecdotal than hard evidence around the connection to overseas protest.

Ardern said the Government would take advice before seeking any legislative pathway to ending the occupation.

Wed want to see the evidence to ensure that any steps or regulatory changes were actually targeted at the identified problem.

At least one of the groups behind the occupation, Voices for Freedom (VFF), has provided travel costs to those who wish to travel to the capital. The anti-lockdown group paid for flights for a 27-year-old woman, her 24-year-old partner, and a friend, 29, to travel from Queenstown to Wellington this week. She spoke to Stuff on the condition of anonymity.

The cost for return flights was around $500, she said. The group wouldnt join the encampment, but would stay with friends. She was told food would be provided, and that organisers have gathered enough to feed the camp for four months.

The former hospitality worker attended a local VFF meeting some time ago. More recently, she signed up to the groups online database and attended a meeting on the shores of Lake Wakatipu where she expressed a desire to join the protest Ive lost my job and my home, so Im free to go and stand with these people who have lost the same as me, she said.

Over the weekend, she was contacted by the organiser of the meeting and told funds could be provided from a donor to facilitate her travel.They called me to say they have a fund from people within the group who cant physically be there but want to donate and support someone else to get there. They were like: we are willing to fund you as much as we can.

Two donors offered me a little bit of help. Its mind-blowing. Everything in my world has just opened for me to go there. People are saying: just go.

Once she booked the flights and provided an invoice, the cash was transferred to her bank account. It didnt come directly from Voices for Freedom, but was donated by the owner of a tourism business. Stuff agreed not to publish the names of the organiser or donor.

The woman said she lost the restaurant job she held for five years over her refusal to be vaccinated. She said her employers were very understanding but had no choice. Because she couldnt pay rent, she said she also lost her home.

I didnt want to get [the vaccine.] It went against all of my values. I believe in it, I just dont personally want it... and then to be forced out of my job and my home... the losing of my basic rights was very upsetting. I felt shoved out of society, which is what this protest is all about and the reason Im going.

The trio were also friends with Rory Nairn, a 26-year-old Dunedin plumber, who died in November. An autopsy found Nairn's death was consistent with vaccine-related myocarditis and the coroner is now investigating. Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, is a rare side effect of Pfizers Covid-19 vaccine, affecting about three in every 100,000 people vaccinated. Most cases are mild and do not require treatment.

Supplied/Stuff

New Plymouth District councilors Murray Chong and Anneka Carlson at the anti-mandate protest in Wellington.

New Plymouth District Council councillor Murray Chong, who is at the occupation, said he had been approached by a very wealthy person in the far north wanting to make a sizeable donation amounting in the thousands.

He had not received a parking ticket but had been told that, if he did, he could take it to the information tent at the occupation site and it would be taken care of.

He was aware of many others some who supported the cause but couldnt get to Wellington who had donated money, food, or petrol.

Protester Ben Norton was also told he could take parking tickets to the information tent, and they sort it out for you.

Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean confirmed that, so far, just five of the parking tickets handed out at the site had been paid. The council issued 335 tickets last Tuesday and a further 184 the week before.

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New Zealand occupation fundraising website registered in Canada - Stuff.co.nz