Notes taken during a meeting between municipal workers and Freedom Convoy protesters show municipal authorities considered allowing large trucks to remain on the street along Parliament Hill indefinitely, court heard , THURSDAY.
The notes were presented by the defense during the criminal trial of two organizers of the convoy, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber. They had struck a deal with then-Mayor Jim Watson to move trucks out of residential neighborhoods and onto Wellington Street during last year’s protest.
The city’s emergency services director, Kim Ayotte, met with several convoy organizers and other city staff over pizza on Feb. 13 to go over details and develop a plan.
Chris Barber was among the protest organizers present.
“Kim Ayotte produced maps and demarcated the area of [la rue] Wellington in which the city is prepared to accommodate trucks indefinitely,” states the minutes of that meeting, which were filed as evidence in court.
Mr. Ayotte affirmed in court Thursday that the police had never agreed to leave the trucks indefinitely and that this was not part of the agreement.
“The police were in the room and they did not agree,” Mr. Ayotte argued on the witness stand.
The city’s emergency services director took notes throughout the protest, but did not take any during the meeting. He said he viewed the meeting as an informal attempt to establish relations with protest organizers.
Agreement and communication problems
Kim Ayotte said he considered the deal reached on Feb. 14 a success, when Mr. Barber reported to him that he had exhausted himself moving 40 trucks.
These efforts were interrupted on February 15, after an incident between police and demonstrators.
“We had some communication problems this morning with some city police officers,” Mr. Barber wrote to Mr. Ayotte in a text message sent on February 15. The message was entered as evidence at trial.
“I kind of put things on hold until the issues were resolved.”
Mr Ayotte contacted his police contact, Acting Superintendent Robert Drummond, but said police gave him limited information about why the deal fell through.
A text message exchange filed as evidence in court shows that Mr. Drummond first told Mr. Ayotte that the police liaison team would check with the truckers on February 15 “to see if there were any other takers , but the groups are very divided.
Later in the morning, Robert Drummond said police would no longer help move trucks, except for those protesters who wanted to voluntarily leave the city.
Legal request against demonstrators
The same day as the convoy organizers met over pizza, Kim Ayotte signed an affidavit in support of the City’s application to the Ontario Superior Court for an injunction against the people who violated municipal regulations.
Lawrence Greenspon, the lawyer representing Tamara Lich, said Mr. Ayotte’s affidavit did not mention convoy organizers’ agreement to reduce the footprint of the protest area that had been determined earlier in the day.
In response to Mr. Greenspon’s questions, Mr. Ayotte also confirmed that no one at the City of Ottawa mentioned the upcoming request for an injunction to the protest organizers who attended the meeting over pizza.
Chris Barber’s attorney, Diane Magas, said the tone of the affidavit suggested the protesters were not cooperating at all with the city or police.
“But that’s not entirely true,” Magas said, pointing to the cooperative effort to move the trucks that they agreed to in a meeting with him hours before he signed the document. .
Justice Heather Perkins-McVey asked whether Mr. Ayotte had revised his affidavit in light of the plan he had developed with the protest organizers. He said no and that he considered them “two separate issues.”