(OTTAWA) The organizers of the “freedom convoy” were trying to find a way out of the crisis in the days preceding the major police operation that put an end to their activities. Their lawyer, Keith Wilson, testified Wednesday that they wanted to clear all streets in downtown Ottawa to concentrate trucks on Wellington Street, in front of Parliament, and stay as long as necessary.
Posted at 12:09 p.m.
Negotiations were then underway with the City of Ottawa to clear residential streets. For the organizers of the truck convoy, the idea was to focus the demonstration on the federal government. The “freedom convoy” was first created to oppose the vaccination obligation imposed on truckers for cross-border travel.
Me Wilson claimed the idea was to demonstrate that the organizers were acting in good faith. Their hope was thus to obtain a meeting with ministers from Justin Trudeau’s government, but not the Prime Minister himself. They believed this would give a reason to leave for the protesters who had been paralyzing the city center of the federal capital for the past few weeks.
Power struggles between all sorts of groups undermined the organization of the “freedom convoy”. The movement attracted conspiracy theorists “like a flame attracts moths”. He said several groups were pressuring his client, Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the truck convoy, to try to take control or have their share of the 10 million raised through a crowdfunding campaign.
More details to come.