Largest single Ontario convoy donation came from this London, Ont., businessman

The largest single donation to the convoy protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates came from a prominent London, Ont., businessman who says the government has gone too far in its response to the protest movement against pandemic mandates.

Hacked data from thecrowdfunding websiteGiveSendGo shows Holden Rhodes and his wife, Carey, gave $25,000 US, which tops any other single donation from Ontario, although another donor made two separate donations of $20,000 US.

Rhodes has deep roots in the London business community. The Western University grad practised corporate law at McKenzie Lake for more than 17 years, and in 2015 sold his technology company CarProof for $650 million US.

Rhodes is the owner of Killarney Mountain Lodge, a resorton the north shore of Georgian Bay.

Government overreach 'astounding'

In an email to CBC News, Rhodes confirmed the donation and said he supports the convoy movement because he believes the government is overstepping its response to the protests.

"The overreach on the last two years has been astounding, but in the last two weeks in Canada it has been absolutely alarming for anyone who believes in a peaceful and free society," he said.

"Government at all levels has to realize they are elected to represent the people of Canada rather than lock up and threaten to arrest people for exercising their legal rights of peaceful protest."

Rhodes said he chose to release the letter because once his donation became public, he received more media calls than he had time to answer.

The convoy, which supporters refer to as a Freedom Convoy, began in January when a large procession of transport trucks travelled eastward across Canada to protest vaccine mandates and others measures intended to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 35,000 Canadians.

• Tracking the Coronavirus

Since its arrival in Ottawa on Jan. 29,the convoy has clogged downtown Ottawa with protesters' parked transport trucks. Residents have complained the convoy is ruining their quality of life. On Tuesday, the city's police chief quit as anger grew over the force's inability to restore order to the area around Parliament Hill. Other similar protests have happened across Canada and at times blocked border crossings to the U.S.

Some of Rhodes's letter focuses on how police and government have responded to the convoy's presence in Ottawa.

"I am not prepared to accept a country without freedom for my family, my children, my friends, my neighbours and every other Canadian," he wrote. "That is why I am doing what I am doing."

In addition to Rhodes's donation, southwestern Ontario was a significant source of online donations to the convoy protest, according toan analysis of hacked data fromGiveSendGo.

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Donations from across the region

The data, which was made public onSunday evening, reveals the name, email addresses and postal codes attached to 92,844 donationsto the campaign.CBC News has reviewed the information but has not been able to independently confirm if all the people on the list did in fact donate to the Freedom Convoy.

CBCNews has looked at the locations within the data of where donors said they were from by using the first three characters of their postal code. In addition to the $25,000 donation from London, certain geographic areas of southwestern Ontario were significant sources of donations to the site.

These include:

• Areas with postal codes starting with "N0J" which covers parts of Oxford County, generated 82 donations totalling $17,486 in donations.
• Areas with postal codes starting with "N0M," which includes a wide swath of Middlesex County and Huron County along Lake Huron generated a 105 donations totalling $13,338.
• The area of north London where postal codes begin with "N6G" was the source of 40 donations totalling more than $29,000, a figure certainly skewed by Rhodes' donation.
• The area with postal codes starting with N0E, which includes parts of Brant and Norfolk counties generated 81 donations totallingjust over $9,000.

In addition to Rhodes, CBC News reached out to the 25 donors in southwestern Ontario who contributed the most money.Joe Wecker of Chathamsaid he contributed $1,000 to"support a peaceful protest against vaccine mandates."

In total, the GiveSendGo page raised more than $8 million US in donations before the site was shut down on Sunday night by hackers. On Tuesday morning, the site was back up and running.

The hacked data reveals 55.7 per cent of the 92,844 donations made publiccame from donors in the United States, whilejust 39 per cent came from donorslocated in Canada.

Editor's note:This story has been updated to limit identifying information.