(OTTAWA) The opposition group to Quebec’s sanitary measures, Farfadaas joined the “freedom convoy” in Ottawa with a line of vehicles that measured 107 kilometers on Highway 50, according to its leader Steeve Charland. He claimed that he did not have control over all the members who decided to join his movement.
Posted at 4:40 p.m.
“The Farfadaas movement is great, but we are not responsible for all Quebecers,” he said in response to one of the Commission’s lawyers.
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. The Farfadaas decided to join the “freedom convoy” to “participate in the largest movement in Canada” to “unite the people”.
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” and credited them with closing the Rideau Mall, the city’s largest.
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, the members of the convoy organized by the Farfadaas settled as far as they could on Rideau Street, but that there was already trucks. The question came up several times, which visibly annoyed the witness.
He also denied any allegations of violent behavior during the protest and said he had no connection to participants in the blockades in Coutts, Alta., and the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor. The Farfadaas also distributed more than $24,000 to Quebec truckers who did not have access to those collected for the “freedom convoy”.
Mr. Charland said he was not in downtown Ottawa during the massive police operation to clear downtown. He was however arrested for his participation in the “freedom convoy” and served 23 days in prison and claimed to have had to accept “heavy conditions” including that of being deprived of his right to express himself on social networks. .
He 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.