(Ottawa) The leader of the Farfaadas, Steeve Charland, is asking for online donations to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. His trial opened at the Ottawa courthouse on Monday. He is accused of mischief and incitement to mischief, actions he allegedly committed during the “freedom convoy” in 2022.
When The Press asked him what state of mind he was in, he replied “put down, ready to face the music.” » He pleaded not guilty.
Steeve Charland is looking for $40,000 to $50,000 to pay his legal fees. He posted a video on social media last week asking for donations.
“Because lawyers are expensive, because we no longer have the means with the battles we have been waging for a couple of years and because I would not understand waging this fight alone since we were not really not alone when we did it,” he explained in an interview.
This is his second trial linked to protests against health measures during the pandemic. The Farfadaas blocked the Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine tunnel in March 2021. He received a suspended sentence with 120 hours of community service for his participation in the misdeed and the conspiracy.
About 15 people were present at the Ottawa courthouse to support him, including ex-Farfaada Mario Roy, whose trial for blocking the Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine tunnel in Montreal is not over.
The court heard the testimony of Inspector Patrick Vaillancourt, of the City of Gatineau Police Department. During the “freedom convoy,” the Farfaadas had set up their headquarters in a parking lot in downtown Gatineau, rented for $1,000 per day. This Quebec group opposed the health measures imposed during the pandemic.
The Farfaadas were also present on Rideau Street, a few kilometers from Parliament Hill. Ottawa police were concerned about his presence at the corner of Rideau and Sussex streets. During her testimony to the Rouleau commission, the deputy chief of the Ottawa Police Service, Patricia Ferguson, described the group as “hostile” and intimidating. She attributed the closure of the Rideau shopping center, the largest in the city, to him. An operation bringing together 400 police officers organized to dislodge them had aborted due to disagreements in the crisis unit set up by the authorities.
The “freedom convoy” had paralyzed downtown Ottawa for several weeks. Steeve Charland had rejected any allegation of violent behavior during the demonstration, during his testimony to the Rouleau commission. He spent 23 days in prison after his arrest. His release conditions which prevented him from expressing himself on social networks were recently relaxed.
A vast police operation, the largest in the country’s history, put an end to the freedom convoy in February 2022 after the Trudeau government resorted to Emergency Measures Act. Hundreds of heavy trucks have been blocking the streets of the city center of the federal capital for more than three weeks. The Rouleau commission aimed to determine whether this historic use of this exceptional legislation to give extraordinary powers to the authorities and suspend certain rights was justified.