One of Quebec’s figureheads of the Freedom Convoy, Steeve “L’Artiss” Charland, was released on Monday pending trial. He will have spent more than three weeks behind bars in Ontario.
The influencer opposed to the sanitary measures remains accused of mischief and of having advised others to commit mischief.
In an all-French hearing at the Ottawa courthouse, Justice of the Peace Jocelyne St-Jean agreed to release the 48-year-old man from prison pending his trial, on a $27,000 bond. $ which he shares with two guarantors.
In addition, Mr. Charland is also prohibited from connecting to social networks and promoting any activity related to his cause for the past two years. The Outaouais resident will also not be allowed to go near the Ottawa parliament or communicate with the main organizer of the “Freedom Convoy”, Tamara Lich, among other English-speaking figures of the movement. .
The leader of the protest group Les Farfadaas and former leader of the identity group La Meute is a well-known figure in the anti-mask movement in Quebec. He made headlines this winter for organizing his own convoy of truckers to Ottawa, before setting up his own base camp in Gatineau, near the Ontario border.
Members of his group were very visible during the occupation of the streets of Ottawa in February. One of his relatives was the liaison with the formal organization of the convoy, according to the details shared at the Homework by the Quebec “captain” of the Freedom Convoy.
Mr. Charland was arrested on February 26, when several occupants dislodged from Ottawa wanted to continue their movement to force the federal government to change its management of the COVID-19 pandemic; he had been detained ever since.
His bail hearing had several false starts, before being subject to a publication ban preventing The duty to publish key elements of the evidence against him.
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