Two years have passed since police moved in to disperse the so-called Freedom Convoy, which saw thousands of people flood downtown Ottawa in late January 2022. Participants saw themselves as protesting, among other things, what they saw as overreach by the Canadian government; some of the leaders reportedly aimed to overthrow the federal government. Researchers say this Canadian movement was shaped, in part, by foreign disinformation.
TVO Today speaks with Caroline Orr Bueno, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maryland who has studied the convoy, about conspiracy theories, the possibility of Russian interference, and whether the Freedom Convoy is truly over.
Listen to Orr Bueno’s appearance on the “From Russia With Love” episode of the TVO Today podcast Screen Time: The Battle for Reality.
TVO Today: To start with, I’d like to give our readers a taste of what you discuss in the podcast. So, in broad strokes, what does your research on the Freedom Convoy tell you about Russian influence in Canada?
Caroline Orr Bueno: My research wasn’t — and isn’t — showing that Russia was the impetus behind the movement or that it started the movement. But their state media and social media fanned the flames or promoted the event.
They were providing actual on-the-ground coverage [of the Freedom Convoy]. Their state-media outlet, RT, actually came in, covered the event, and interviewed people. They even turned some people into mini-celebrities, like people who were convoy organizers, and there’s a class of people called convoy influencers. They were interviewing them and putting them on Russian media that was outward-facing to Canada and America.
I also think it’s important to consider the bigger context here. You know, a lot of issues that were really driving people to be part of the convoy movement are issues that we know Russia has played a role in exacerbating. Things like vaccination, COVID mandates, and COVID public-health policies, as well as broader issues like [racist theories about immigration], and all of these issues kind of come together.
TVO Today: You published a research paper in early 2023 looking at Russia’s role in the Freedom Convoy. How did you draw your conclusions?
Orr Bueno: I looked at television coverage by Russian state media, online coverage through Russian state media, and then some of the actual convoy groups on Telegram.
It was quite striking because all the major international media outlets — including CNN, MSNBC, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, BBC — out of all of them, RT had far more coverage of the convoy. I believe they covered it on television more than all the others combined.
Looking online, there were hundreds of articles between two Russian state-media outlets, RT and Sputnik. I also looked at what are called proxy websites, which have been identified as being Russian intelligence but don’t say they are.
And then I looked at these Telegram groups that had been focused on the convoy, whether it was sending out maps or posting encouragement. They very quickly and dramatically changed their focus to be focused entirely on Russia’s war in Ukraine or a fusion of the war and the convoy.
Basically, it showed that Russia was engaged in a multi-channel, pretty extensive effort to amplify the convoy. Then it appears that some of the channels that they used for they then used essentially to promote their invasion of Ukraine.
TVO Today: The protestors who made up the convoy were driven by a huge spectrum of issues and conspiracy beliefs around things like vaccine mandates but also things like immigration. And then you saw some of the Telegram groups that had coalesced around the takeover of Ottawa quickly turn to something happening in another part of the globe that was also fraught with conspiracy belief. What does that tell you about the nature of the false information being promoted by Russia?
Caroline Orr Bueno is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maryland. (Twitter)
Orr Bueno: The issues themselves are like wrapping over more fundamental core beliefs and values. A lot of times, they’re moral values that transcend topic. If you can tap into some community of people who are anti-vaccine, for example, they’re generally more concerned with things like not wanting the government to tell them what to do. They’re more concerned with that than they are protecting the vulnerable.
It’s not that they’re not concerned with protecting vulnerable people — at least, not the majority —but that they tend more toward prioritizing needing to stand in the way of [what they see] as a tyrannical government.
I think that what you’re seeing with this topical stuff is some indication that there was some underlying moral value or underlying belief that associates people together. I don’t know that we know exactly what the underlying moral value is, but I think that’s what you’re seeing.
TVO Today: Why is Russia putting all these resources into fostering conspiracy belief and communities? What’s in it for them?
Orr Bueno: It’s kind of that divide-and-conquer strategy.
TVO Today: You mentioned right at the start of our interview that Russia had an influence on the convoy, but the people who made it up were Canadians. To a large extent, this was a homegrown movement. What does that tell us about where Canada is right now?
Orr Bueno: This wasn’t Russia injecting these issues into Canada. They came from within Canada, and Russia just had to come in and talk the two sides into going a little farther apart.
It’s important, whether we’re looking at a movement like this or whether we’re looking at bigger trends in disinformation and conspiracy theory, to look at what it’s doing for people and why people are drawn to it.
It takes quite a bit of motivation to get people to actually go out and protest. I think what you’re really looking at is a group of people who are upset about various trends in Canadian and global societies. In Canada, they feel like the Liberal government is behind policies that are not helpful and are actively harmful to them. It’s worth recognizing that because it tells you it’s not going to go away. These are these are real people experiencing real emotions in response to external events.
Agenda segment, March 3, 2022: Unpacking the rhetoric of the "Freedom Convoy"
TVO Today: So is the Freedom Convoy over?
Orr Bueno: The Freedom Convoy, although that was a distinct thing that happened in 2022, is part of this longer-term movement. The people and feelings that prompted the movement are all still there.
It’s very easy, then, for people like Tucker Carlson to come in. He already knows how these people see the world, because it’s pretty obvious. All you have to do is reinforce what these people believe in and what they already think, and it continues the cycle. Then you have this readily available group of people who are easily activated on pretty easily identifiable issues. They’re kind of there for the picking for whoever wants to come in and create the next protest movement, whatever that might be.
Protesting is legal. There’s nothing wrong with actively protesting. But there’s an issue: Are these people, unbeknownst to them, being used, kind of like a campaign? I don’t think they would ever think of themselves that way. But that’s kind of the dynamic here.
TVO Today: Recently, the Federal Court ruled that the Liberal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to shut down the Freedom Convoy violated Charter rights. The feds plan to appeal this ruling at the Supreme Court. What should readers keep in mind when following this story?
Orr Bueno: For one thing, it’s always a good sign of a democratic country when you’re able to have rulings that go against the ruling party. To me, that’s a sign of a functioning healthy democracy.
There is a relatively long history of various political leaders trying to use public-health epidemics to do unconstitutional things. So, [if that’s the Supreme Court’s ruling], it wouldn’t be the first time it happened. I wouldn’t shut that possibility out.
But I also think it’s easier to look back and say that wasn’t an emergency when things are calm now. At the time, an entire city was shut down, and residents were saying they were being videoed and being threatened and harassed. I think you have to put yourself in the shoes of someone reacting to like an unfolding crisis.
I think it’s a sign that, you know, Canada’s democracy is still functioning to be able to have a process like this where you do get to look back on things like that and decide whether or not you know, you want that thing to be able to happen again.
This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
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