A “power struggle” divided the original organizers of the Freedom Convoy, including over a pseudo-legal document that claimed the movement could remove Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the first trucker heard at the Rouleau commission testified on Tuesday. .
“It was a power struggle, the whole time,” said Chris Barber, one of the main leaders of the Freedom Convoy who crossed the country to demonstrate in Ottawa last January.
The Saskatchewan trucker described how he protested against cross-border vaccination obligations on the social media TikTok, before forming with Brigitte Belton and Tamara Lich the heart of the group of organizers of a motorized convoy to the Canadian capital.
However, this group was joined by another, called Canada Unity and led by James Bauder, which had a website that displayed convoy routes to Ottawa. On this site was published a strange pseudo-legal document which falsely claimed that the Senate and the Governor General could force Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign if he refused to end the sanitary measures.
This manifesto was used as justification for invoking the Emergencies Act, which said protesters had overstepped their right to free speech.
“I’ve never read it,” admitted Chris Barber, questioned about it during his appearance on Tuesday. He suggested that Canada Unity was trying to take over the leadership of the movement, and that other groups joined in with other demands, such as “taking back our freedoms”.
Accidentally in front of parliament
Chris Barber has made the startling claim that he never planned to set up shop in front of the federal parliament, but rather around two other downtown Ottawa parks. According to his version of the facts, trucks that were not part of the Convoy had already begun to block the parliamentary precinct before his arrival.
Chris Barber says he had no idea at the time how long he would stay in Ottawa, and that the police never asked him. He often mentioned on his social media that his movement was peaceful, and said one of his worst fears was that the protest would turn violent “January 6th style”. [au capitole américain] because of the heavy police presence, he said.
He told commissioner Paul Rouleau that he met with Patrick King and other organizers in a virtual meeting on January 13. Documents filed with the commission show that the police were already monitoring his movement at that time, since the first intelligence report on the OPP Freedom Convoy was produced on that date.