Did Russia play a role in Canada’s far-right Trucker Convey protests?

During the height of the Freedom Convey crisis, Canadian news anchor Nil Köksal suggested that Russia may have been behind the protests.

"Given Canada's support of Ukraine, in this current crisis with Russia, I don't know if it's far-fetched to ask," Köksal said during an on-air interview with Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicio. 

“But there is concern that Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows,” Köksal added, “or perhaps even instigating it from the outside.”

Köksal was slammed by all sides of the political spectrum almost immediately. But it did get some experts thinking—was she right?

It has been more than a year since the Freedom Convoy made its way to Ottawa and new research suggests that Russia just might have had a hand in fanning the flames of Canada’s biggest protest during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Caroline Orr Bueno is a researcher at the University of Maryland’s Applies Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security and she recently published a paper that suggests Russia did indeed play a part in Canada’s Trucker Convoy protests.

Orr Bueno’s analysis focused on examining Russia’s media coverage and state-affiliate proxy websites in relation to how they overlapped with Freedom Convoy content on social media. 

“The findings reveal that the Russian state media outlet RT covered the Freedom Convoy far more than any other international media outlet,” Orr Bueno concluded. 

Orr Bueno added that her findings suggested that there was a “strong interest” on the part of Russia’s state media in the far-right protest movement that took hold of Ottawa and several other major cities in Canada in February 2022. 

“State-affiliated proxy websites and content on the messaging platform Telegram provide further evidence of Russia’s strategic interest in the Freedom Convoy,” Orr Bueno wrote in the abstract of her research paper, which was published in The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare. 

“Based on these findings, it is reasonable to infer that there was Russian involvement in the 2022 truck convoy,” Orr Bueno continued. 

Unfortunately, Orr Bueno noted that she had yet to determine the full scope and the total impact any potential Russian meddling had on the Trucker Convoy protests, though she believes they did play a role. 

In January, a Freedom Convoy reunion was planned—and aimed to take over the city of Winnipeg from February 17th to the 20th—but it was canceled by its organizer. 

Organizer James Bauder said in a statement that he was forced to cancel the event because of several “security breaches” as well as a series of “personal attacks.”

“The main reason for canceling the Freedom Convoy 2.0 is… I have had several security breaches,” Bauder wrote, adding that he also met with several “personal character attacks made against me and others on Team Canada Unity.”

“As a result of these security breaches that are beyond our control, I cannot in good conscience guarantee public safety as I promised,” Bauder concluded. there has been no word yet on whether or not Russia was involved this time...