(Ottawa) A long convoy of vehicles organized by the Farfaadas took Highway 50 towards Gatineau on January 29 to “participate in the largest rally in the history of Canada to unite the people.” The leader of this Quebec group opposed to health measures, Steeve Charland, testified to the Commission on the state of emergency on Tuesday.
Updated yesterday at 7:34 p.m.
Two organizers of the “freedom convoy”, Chris Barber and Brigitte Belton, were also questioned. It was the first time that demonstrators gave their version of the facts since the start of this public inquiry on October 13.
“There are things that I find that have been excessive,” said Mr. Charland to explain his participation in the demonstration, which was originally intended against the vaccination obligation imposed by the federal government on truckers. He notably alluded to the curfew imposed by the Quebec government.
The line of vehicles that responded to the call of the Farfadaas measured 107 kilometers, according to Mr. Charland. He portrayed his group as peaceful and insisted that he had fed “hundreds of homeless people from Gatineau and Ottawa” during his stay in the federal capital region. He claimed that he had no control over everyone who decided to join.
The Farfadaas movement is great, but we are not responsible for all Quebecers.
Steve Charland, leader of the Farfadaas
The group had set up its headquarters in a parking lot in downtown Gatineau that it rented for $1,000 a day, but it was 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, according to testimony from Acting Deputy Chief of the Ottawa Police Service, Patricia Ferguson, delivered on October 20. She had portrayed the group as “hostile,” intimidating, and credited them with closing the Rideau Mall, the city’s largest. An operation bringing together 400 police officers had even been organized on February 9 to dislodge them, but had aborted because of disagreements in the crisis unit.
One of the organizers of the “freedom convoy”, Chris Barber, also testified earlier Tuesday that Quebecers parked there refused to move their trucks even if he had asked them to do so.
“We did not occupy Rideau and Sussex,” replied Mr. Charland. During a press scrum after his testimony, he indicated that he did not understand why the Farfadaas were blamed for the people living on the corner of these streets. “People are all tired on their own and they’ve decided to get up on their own,” he said. I didn’t call anyone to tell them “block such and such a street”. »
He indicated that after being escorted by the RCMP to cross the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge from Gatineau to Ottawa, the members of the Farfadaas convoy set up as far as they could on Rideau Street, but that there already had trucks. He could not specify where exactly on the street. The question came up several times, which visibly annoyed the witness.
During his cross-examination by the government’s lawyer, Caroline Laverdière, he asked her if she represented the Government of Canada or the Liberals. “I represent the Government of Canada,” she clarified. Many of his questions focused on leather jackets and the Farfadaas logo.
Mr. Charland denied any allegations of violent behavior during the protest and said he had no connection to participants in the blockades in Coutts, Alberta, Emerson, Manitoba and the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor. He said he distributed more than $24,000 in donations to Quebec truckers who did not have access to the funds raised for the “freedom convoy”.
The leader of the Farfadaas claimed he was not in downtown Ottawa after the use of the Emergency Measures Act, but still had problems with his bank. Mr. Charland, who had never had a criminal record, was also arrested for his participation in the “freedom convoy”. He faces charges of mischief and incitement to mischief.
“I spent 23 days in prison and if I got out it was because I accepted heavy conditions which took away my fundamental rights,” he lamented. He is notably deprived of expressing himself on social networks.
He claimed that all people had “heard on the media is shit”, which prompted laughter and applause in the courtroom. Judge Paul Rouleau then issued a warning.
Mr. Charland ended his testimony to the Commission with a long diatribe. “I do not understand how much we have slipped to this point in our country,” he said. He has described himself as “a citizen of the people” who defends the Canadian constitution and the rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The State of Emergency Commission must determine whether the historic use of Emergency Measures Act by the federal government was justified in order to end the “freedom convoy” and blockades of border crossings elsewhere in the country.
Earlier in the day, Chris Barber one of the protest organizers said there was no coordination between the convoy of trucks in Ottawa and the other blockades. He too admitted that he had no control over all the truckers paralyzing downtown Ottawa even though he asked them to be peaceful. He tried to distance himself from Canada Unity, a group that wanted to overthrow the government with the help of the Governor General and the Speaker of the Senate.
The Bloc Québécois denounces the government’s “dangerous strategy”
Deputy Rhéal Fortin described as “deeply irresponsible” the communication strategy in the office of the Minister of Public Security, Marco Mendicino, during the “freedom convoy”. His press secretary was considering asking him to do interviews on “extreme elements” of the protest, days before they arrived in Ottawa, we learned in a text exchange with a close adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. filed in evidence at the Commission on the state of emergency. “Two days later, the Prime Minister actually insulted the convoy and the police confirmed that this fueled the crisis,” denounced Mr. Fortin during question period. Minister Mendicino repeated the “freedom convoy” had negative repercussions and that the government would participate in the public inquiry for the sake of transparency.