Freedom, politics, management and cash — the various motivations of the ‘Freedom Convoy’

Months earlier than 1000’s of protesters rolled into Canada’s capital with the “Freedom Convoy,” gridlocking streets to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Canada Unity founder James Bauder had already staged the same, however a lot smaller, protest in Ottawa.

Bauder’s mini-convoy of fewer than 100 protesters, known as the “Convoy for Freedom,” arrived in October 2021 to flout public well being guidelines in shops and eating places and blockade streets in entrance of the residences of the prime minister and governor basic.

On Thursday, he instructed the fee investigating the federal authorities’s determination to invoke the Emergencies Act that he delivered a “memorandum of understanding” to the Senate and the Governor Common on that journey. His hope was that they’d comply with work along with his group to overthrow COVID-19 measures and ask the prime minister to step down for “committing treason and crimes in opposition to humanity.”

“Had 1000’s vs. 100 proven up we’d nonetheless be there and more than likely the MOU would have gotten the much-needed strain tactic we had been searching for,” Bauder wrote to supporters on his Fb web page in December.

Only some weeks later, Bauder instructed the general public inquiry, he  was working with a free group of organizers who had by no means met each other to carry a a lot bigger crowd of protesters to Ottawa.

Overpowering the authority of the elected authorities was simply one of many disparate targets of the demonstrators, the inquiry has heard throughout per week of testimony from convoy organizers.

They’ve stated that a number of the members merely wished to be heard, whereas others had been on the lookout for a bigger platform — and nonetheless others wished to get their arms on the tens of millions of {dollars} donated to assist the trigger.

The Public Order Emergency Fee is tasked with analyzing the Liberal authorities’s unprecedented determination to invoke the Emergencies Act to assist clear protesters who had been utilizing autos to dam the streets round Parliament Hill final winter.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared a public order emergency on Feb. 14, greater than two weeks after protesters entrenched themselves in downtown Ottawa.

“Protesters have various ideological grievances with calls for starting from an finish to all public well being restrictions to overthrow the elected authorities,” the federal government stated because it cited justifications for invoking the act.

Bauder’s memorandum, which he withdrew on Feb. 8, garnered about 400,000 signatures of assist from the general public, he instructed the inquiry. Bauder has been charged with mischief to impede property, disobeying a lawful courtroom order and obstructing a peace officer in relation to the protest.

He was emotional throughout his testimony, breaking down in tears a number of occasions together with a few of his supporters within the gallery.

Divisions inside ‘Freedom Convoy’ management

Brendan Miller, a lawyer who represents a number of the convoy organizers on the inquiry, stated Canada Unity has by no means known as for any type of violence and by no means known as for the violent overthrow of the federal government of Canada.

A number of of the opposite organizers have testified that they didn’t agree with Bauder’s memorandum, although not less than one organizer signed it.

It wasn’t the one instance of convoy organizers having clashing motives.

One other of the protest’s spokespeople, Benjamin Dichter, instructed the fee earlier Thursday that even the lawyer representing a core group of organizers appeared to have his personal agenda.

“There have been many alternative teams, proper? It wasn’t only one group, and each totally different group had their very own concept,” he stated, including that all members agreed on ending COVID-19 mandates.

He instructed the fee he believed the lawyer, Keith Wilson, might have had political motivations, although he did not supply any particulars.

“We had been all converging on the thought of ArriveCan and the mandates, however he gave the impression to be representing one other group that wished to go in a unique path,” Dichter stated.

On Wednesday, Wilson, who represents Tamara Lich and different convoy organizers, testified that when he arrived in Ottawa through the protest, it turned clear to him that a number of teams had been jockeying for affect.

“What I noticed and believed to be true is that some had been making an attempt to take management, as a result of they noticed the natural flat hierarchy, largely, of the convoy and wished to make it extra profitable and felt they’d the organizational functionality to try this,” Wilson instructed the fee.

“Different teams appeared to need to reshape the Freedom Convoy into their very own occasion, branded theirs, and I acquired the distinct impression from some others that they had been making an attempt to get their arms on what, at that time, was $10 million in donations.”

Lich, who is maybe probably the most recognizable of the organizers, instructed the inquiry late Thursday that she joined the “Freedom Convoy” after failing to get a response from members of Parliament she emailed about ending COVID-19 restrictions.

“I used to be rising more and more alarmed with the mandates and the hurt that I used to be seeing the mandates inflict on Canadians,” she stated.

“I by no means in 1,000,000 years noticed this coming and by no means had an agenda. I actually simply wished to assist some truckers drive throughout Canada and stand in entrance of Parliament with some indicators. That was actually what I had envisioned.”

Extra organizers and protest members are anticipated to testify, together with Jeremy MacKenzie, the founding father of the net group referred to as “Diagolon.”

MacKenzie, who will seem nearly earlier than the fee from jail the place he’s being held on unrelated prices, petitioned for a ban on the publication of his proof on the grounds that his testimony may adversely have an effect on his defence in opposition to these felony prices.

The petition was opposed by a number of different members within the public inquiry, in addition to a consortium of media shops that features The Canadian Press.

Commissioner Paul Rouleau has dismissed the petition and MacKenzie has been summoned to seem Friday. The fee is about to carry public hearings in Ottawa till Nov. 25.