(Ottawa) The emergency lane on the street along Parliament Hill was blocked by chained-up trucks during the “Freedom Convoy” protest in Ottawa last year, the city’s emergency services director told the court Wednesday.
The defense attorney for one of the protest organizers argued that this statement was inconsistent with the director’s earlier testimony.
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are on trial for alleged misdeeds and counseling others to commit mischief, intimidation and other offenses while protesting COVID-19 public health measures.
Kim Ayotte said the city and police had planned to keep one lane open for emergency vehicles, but it was blocked after the first night of protests.
M’s lawyerme Lich, Lawrence Greenspon, pointed out that Mr. Ayotte gave a different answer when asked about emergency lanes last year, as part of a federal investigation into the invocation of the Act on emergency measures.
“Mr. Ayotte confirmed that the convoy organizers had agreed to maintain an emergency lane free and, for the most part, maintained access to such a lane throughout the relevant period,” says the summary of his interview with the lawyers of the investigation. Mr. Ayotte confirmed the content of this summary during the investigation.
Mr. Ayotte testified Wednesday that emergency routes were mostly maintained throughout the rest of the protest area and that emergency response times were still within established standards.
In addition to large parked trucks, the lanes of Wellington Street were clogged with protesters having a dance party, and eventually a stage was erected right on the road, he said.
“Any activity that requires the use of roads for any purpose requires a permit,” Mr. Ayotte said on the witness stand Wednesday.
Me Greenspon told Ayotte that protesters are not required to obtain a permit because their right to demonstrate is guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“To dance in the streets, which you indicated in your testimony, you must have a permit? » asked Me Greenspon, to which Mr. Ayotte responded in the affirmative.
Moving trucks
Mr. Ayotte had no direct contact with Mr.me Lich during the protest, but he met and exchanged text messages with Mr. Barber.
Kim Ayotte was the lead person responsible for facilitating an agreement between the City and protesters to move trucks out of residential neighborhoods on February 14-15.
“The goal was to remove vehicles from residential areas,” explained Mr. Ayotte.
This involved moving trucks onto Wellington Street, across from Parliament Hill, or out of town to a farm property that served as a staging area for additional trucks.
A text message exchange filed as evidence at trial shows that Mr. Ayotte checked on progress with Mr. Barber over those two days and offered any assistance needed to remove the barriers.
On February 15, Mr. Barber texted Mr. Ayotte to tell him that they had helped move 40 trucks the day before and that he was ready to do it again.
The efforts stopped shortly afterward, however, when Mr. Barber said in a message to Mr. Ayotte that there had been an incident with the police and that they should stand down for the time being.
Mr. Ayotte said Ottawa police had given him very limited information about what happened.
Mr. Ayotte said he canvassed the neighborhoods at that time to confirm that some of the larger trucks had left the area, but he said smaller trucks had taken their place.
“Everyone was still trying to get closer to parliament. There wasn’t much movement outside the city,” he testified.
He told the court he took three walks around the protest area and was also able to watch part of the protest unfold from his office window.
During the first week of the protest, he said he heard the almost constant sound of horns from the time he arrived at the office at 7 a.m. until he left at 9 p.m.
After the court issued an injunction banning honking in the city center, the noise became more sporadic, he said.
He also described to the court the smell of diesel coming from idling vehicles and said he had sometimes spotted open fires in the streets.
Me Greenspon presented the court with some of the notes Mr. Ayotte had kept during the convoy protest. They showed that police had informed the City that there were several separate groups of convoys and that they had planned from the start to direct the protesters’ vehicles towards Wellington Street.
“There is no time limit to freedom. The Bill of Rights does not speak of the right to peaceful assembly for a period of up to 48 hours… It is a right enshrined in the Constitution. The right to enjoy property, however, does not exist anywhere found in the Canadian Constitution,” argued the lawyer.
Mr. Ayotte’s cross-examination is expected to continue on Thursday.