Convoy organizers’ lawyer speaks to media after removal from Emergencies Act inquiry – Nov. 22, 2022
'Freedom Convoy' lawyer sued over Nazi flag claim
A lawyer who represented "Freedom Convoy" organizers during the public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act is being sued for defamation by a Toronto consultant he suggested carried a Nazi flag to the protests in Ottawa on Jan. 29.
Brian Fox and government relations firm Enterprise Canada filed a statement of claim against Calgary lawyer Brendan Miller on Wednesday, calling the allegation "malicious" and "character assassination without foundation and without regard for the impact of his words."
The lawsuit alleges Miller falsely suggested Fox condoned hate associated with the Nazi flag and had engaged in a conspiracy with the Liberal government to discredit the protesters.
During the Public Order Emergency Commission, Miller suggested to witness David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, that Fox was the person photographed carrying a flag with a swastika.
Vigneault denied any knowledge of the claim.
Miller's allegations at the hearing echoed a conspiracy theory circulating among convoy supporters on social media, based on partially obscured images of a man carrying the flag.
The claim drew an immediate response from Enterprise Canada, a Toronto-based firm where Fox serves as a communications and crisis response consultant.
The company called the allegation "absurd" and "despicable" and said Fox wasn't even in Ottawa at the time. Further, the firm said Fox was a Conservative and had supported Pierre Poilievre in the leadership race.
In the statement of claim, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Fox and Enterprise allege: "These assertions are patently false. Mr. Fox has not been in Ottawa since 2019 when he attended the Manning conservative action conference. Neither Enterprise nor Mr. Fox were in any way involved, either for or against, the Freedom Convoy protests."
The defamation action seeks a total of $2 million in damages against Miller and demands he publicly retract and apologize for the allegations.
None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been proven in court and Miller has not yet filed a defence against them. He did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Miller had also filed an application at the hearing to call Fox as a witness, saying there was evidence, "the flags, and purported protestors using them, were not protestors with the convoy at all, but provocateurs."
The application was supported by an affidavit from protester Shawn Folkes, who claimed he had spoken to the man holding a Nazi flag on Jan. 29.
"I went onto the website for Enterprise Canada and found Brian Fox's profile thereon, including a photo of him," Folkes said in the affidavit.
"I can confirm that Brian Fox is the man I met with the Nazi Flag on January 29th."
But the lawsuit filed by Fox and Enterprise says even Folkes questioned Miller's charge, saying in a social media post, "I hope Miller knows what he's doing because he's gotta have something. How did he get this name?"
Miller also alleged that the photographer who took pictures of a man carrying a Confederate flag was the prime minister's photographer.
In fact, the pictures were taken by longtime Parliament Hill photojournalist Dave Chan, who did work as official photographer for then-prime minister Paul Martin in 2004 and 2006.
During the inquiry, Miller was also involved in a strange incident outside the hearing room, where he appeared to have mistaken Ottawa lobbyist Greg MacEachern for Fox and invited him to testify at the hearing. He acknowledged to reporters afterward that he had made a mistake and said, "Apparently, there's a lot of people out there that look like Mr. Fox."
Lawyers are typically protected from defamation action for things they say in legal proceedings. However, the lawsuit claims Miller "went far beyond the role of counsel, elaborating on, repeating, justifying and amplifying the false assertions against the Plaintiffs outside the Commission hearing, to numerous media, on social media and to anyone who would listen."
Emergencies Act Inquiry: Convoy organizers James Bauder, Tamara Lich, Benjamin Dichter testify|FULL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiLCBG9cYXU&ab_channel=CTVNews
'Freedom Convoy' organizer Chris Barber full testimony | Emergencies Act inquiry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH-2aXCBgds&t=9406s&ab_channel=NationalPost
2022 02 14 Tamara Lich & Brian Peckford Emergencies Act Response Press Conference
RE Trudeau Invoking the Emergency Act
David Amos<david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> | Tue, May 23, 2023 at 3:35 PM |
| To: harold@jonkertrucking.com, pm <pm@pm.gc.ca> | |
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail. Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2022 19:05:54 -0400 Subject: Fwd: RE Trudeau Invoking the Emergency Act To: rglangille@gmail.com ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail. Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 12:56:38 -0400 Subject: RE Trudeau Invoking the Emergency Act To: justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca, David.Yurdiga@parl.gc.ca, Michael.Kram@parl.gc.ca, Luc.Berthold@parl.gc.ca, Bernard.Genereux@parl.gc.ca, Joel.Godin@parl.gc.ca, jacques.gourde@parl.gc.ca, Richard.Lehoux@parl.gc.ca, info@peoplespartyofcanada.ca, Richard.Martel@parl.gc.ca, Pierre.Paul-Hus@parl.gc.ca, Alain.Rayes@parl.gc.ca, mrisdon@westernstandardonline. lettertoeditor@epochtimes.com, newsdesk@epochtimes.com, ottawa@epochtimes.com, calgary.ca@epochtimes.com, wendy.tiong@epochtimes.com, oldmaison <oldmaison@yahoo.com>, jbosnitch <jbosnitch@gmail.com>, "darrow.macintyre" <darrow.macintyre@cbc.ca>, newsroom@ntdtv.com, feedback@ntdtv.com, jenny.chang@ntdtv.com, joe.wang@ntdtv.com, bgrant@thehill.com, nacharya <nacharya@thehill.com>, Peggy.Regimbal@bellmedia.ca, patrickking@canada-unity.com, james@canada-unity.com, novaxpass@outlook.com, martin@canada-unity.com, tdundas10@gmail.com, jlaface@gmail.com, davesteenburg269@gmail.com, brown_tm3@yahoo.ca, leannemb <leannemb@protonmail.com>, harold@jonkertrucking.com, keepcanada@protonmail.com, andyjohanna01@hotmail.com, janiebpelchat@icloud.com, janetseto@protonmail.com, johndoppenberg@icloud.com, stiessen1979@gmail.com, 77cordoba@outlook.com, pierrette.ringuette@sen.parl. Patrick.Brazeau@sen.parl.gc.ca larry.campbell@sen.parl.gc.ca, Bev.Busson@sen.parl.gc.ca, info@lionelmedia.com, liveneedtoknow@gmail.com, tips@steeltruth.com, media@steeltruth.com, press@deepcapture.com, washington field <washington.field@ic.fbi.gov>, bbachrach <bbachrach@bachrachlaw.net>, "Bill.Blair" <Bill.Blair@parl.gc.ca>, "barbara.massey" <barbara.massey@rcmp-grc.gc.ca Norman Traversy <traversy.n@gmail.com>, news <news@dailygleaner.com>, nobyrne <nobyrne@unb.ca>, tracy@uncoverdc.com, James@jamesfetzer.com, editor@americanthinker.com, nharris@maverick-media.ca, nouvelle <nouvelle@acadienouvelle.com>, news-tips <news-tips@nytimes.com>, danajmetcalfe@icloud.com, lauralynnlive@protonmail.com Cc: Jaime.Battiste@parl.gc.ca, Kody.Blois@parl.gc.ca, Andy.Fillmore@parl.gc.ca, motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>, Darren.Fisher@parl.gc.ca, Sean.Fraser@parl.gc.ca, Bernadette.Jordan@parl.gc.ca, Mike.Kelloway@parl.gc.ca, Darrell.Samson@parl.gc.ca, Lenore.Zann@parl.gc.ca, "heather.bradley" <heather.bradley@parl.gc.ca>, geoff.regan@parl.gc.ca, kelly@kellyregan.ca, Michael.Duffy@sen.parl.gc.ca, Sean.Casey@parl.gc.ca, Robert.Morrissey@parl.gc.ca, lawrence.macaulay@parl.gc.ca, "Furey, John" <jfurey@nbpower.com>, wharrison <wharrison@nbpower.com>, "Mike.Comeau" <Mike.Comeau@gnb.ca>, "Holland, Mike (LEG)" <mike.holland@gnb.ca>, Gudie.Hutchings@parl.gc.ca, Yvonne.Jones@parl.gc.ca, Ken.McDonald@parl.gc.ca, Seamus.ORegan@parl.gc.ca, Churence.Rogers@parl.gc.ca, scott.simms@parl.gc.ca, Jim.Carr@parl.gc.ca, Dan.Vandal@parl.gc.ca, kevin.lamoureux@parl.gc.ca, Terry.Duguid@parl.gc.ca, Larry.Bagnell@parl.gc.ca, Michael.McLeod@parl.gc.ca https://www.bitchute.com/ February 14 Brian Peckford Presser - Complete First published at 19:11 UTC on February 15th, 2022. #BrianPeckford #TamaraLich Live with Laura-Lynn Laura-Lynn 11917 subscribers February 14 Brian Peckford Presser - Complete All of my content is completely, 100% viewer supported and funded. Thank you for your kindness and generosity to keep information like this coming! https://www.bitchute.com/ TBOF’s Press Conference in Response To Trudeau Invoking the Emergency Act Live with Laura-Lynn Laura-Lynn 11917 subscribers TBOF’s Press Conference in Response To Trudeau Invoking the Emergency Act All of my content is completely, 100% viewer supported and funded. Thank you for your kindness and generosity to keep information like this coming! “Fear is the Virus” T-Shirts:… https://westernstandardonline. Alberta lawyer files complaint against Pfizer The statement says the US FDA briefing “fraudulently and misleadingly does not discuss or acknowledge any other potential causes of death.” mm Published 3 months ago on November 19, 2021 By Melanie Risdon https://www.facebook.com/ On 3/11/21, David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail. > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Premier of Ontario | Premier ministre de l’Ontario > <Premier@ontario.ca> > Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2021 22:56:03 +0000 > Subject: Automatic reply: Anybody know who the Governor General is > these days??? Methinks if Trudeau the Younger wants a writ dropped > somebody has to do the dirty deed N'esy Pas? > To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail. > > Thank you for your email. Your thoughts, comments and input are greatly > valued. > > You can be assured that all emails and letters are carefully read, > reviewed and taken into consideration. > > There may be occasions when, given the issues you have raised and the > need to address them effectively, we will forward a copy of your > correspondence to the appropriate government official. Accordingly, a > response may take several business days. > > Thanks again for your email. > ______ > > Merci pour votre courriel. Nous vous sommes très reconnaissants de > nous avoir fait part de vos idées, commentaires et observations. > > Nous tenons à vous assurer que nous lisons attentivement et prenons en > considération tous les courriels et lettres que nous recevons. > > Dans certains cas, nous transmettrons votre message au ministère > responsable afin que les questions soulevées puissent être traitées de > la manière la plus efficace possible. En conséquence, plusieurs jours > ouvrables pourraient s’écouler avant que nous puissions vous répondre. > > Merci encore pour votre courriel. > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Info <Info@gg.ca> > Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2021 21:26:28 +0000 > Subject: OSGG General Inquiries / Demande de renseignements généraux au > BSGG > To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail. > > Thank you for writing to the Office of the Secretary to the Governor > General. We appreciate hearing your views and suggestions. Responses > to specific inquiries can be expected within three weeks. Please note > that general comments and opinions may not receive a response. > > ***** > > Nous vous remercions d'avoir écrit au Bureau du secrétaire du > gouverneur général. Nous aimons prendre connaissance de vos points de > vue et de vos suggestions. Il faut allouer trois semaines pour > recevoir une réponse à une demande précise. Veuillez noter que nous ne > donnons pas nécessairement suite aux opinions et aux commentaires > généraux. > > > IMPORTANT NOTICE: This message may contain confidential or privileged > information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are > not the intended recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute or > copy this email. Please notify the sender immediately if you have > received this email by mistake and delete it from your system. > > AVIS IMPORTANT : Le présent courriel peut contenir des renseignements > confidentiels et est strictement réservé à l’usage de la personne à > qui il est destiné. Si vous n’êtes pas la personne visée, vous ne > devez pas diffuser, distribuer ou copier ce courriel. Merci de nous en > aviser immédiatement et de supprimer ce courriel s’il vous a été > envoyé par erreur. > > > On 3/11/21, David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail. >> ---------- Original message ---------- >> From: Art.McDonald@forces.gc.ca >> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2021 17:08:24 +0000 >> Subject: Automatic reply: YO JONATHAN.VANCE You have been ducKing e >> since 2015 when I was running iN the election of the 42nd Parliament >> and suing the Queen in Federal Court Methinks it is YOU who should >> finally call me back N'esy Pas? >> To: david.raymond.amos333@gmail. >> >> The Acting Chief of the Defence Staff is LGen Wayne Eyre, he may be >> reached at wayne.eyre@forces.gc.ca. >> >> Le Chef d'état-major de la Défense par intérim est le LGen Wayne Eyre. >> Il peut être rejoint au wayne.eyre@forces.gc.ca. >> >> Art McD >> He/Him // Il/Lui >> Admiral/amiral Art McDonald >> >> Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) >> Canadian Armed Forces >> art.mcdonald@forces.gc.ca< >> 613-992-5054 >> >> Chef d’état-major de la Defense (CÉMD) >> Forces armées canadiennes >> art.mcdonald@forces.gc.ca< >> 613-992-5054 >> >> | |
https://www.rebelnews.com/jim_karahalios_addresses_the_infighting_among_the_convoys_leadership
Jim Karahalios addresses the infighting among the convoy's leadership
The leader of the New Blue Party of Ontario was serving as legal counsel for one of the Freedom Convoy organizers, Benjamin Dichter, and touches on the disagreements between Dichter and others involved in the protest.
In a surprise to some viewers who have been following along with the Public Order Emergency Commission, the co-founder and leader of the New Blue Party of Ontario, Jim Karahalios, appeared at the public inquiry to represent Benjamin Dichter, one of the Freedom Convoy organizers, during his testimony.
The inquiry, which we here at Rebel News are calling the Trucker Commission, is a mandatory investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's invoking of the Emergencies Act, the never-before-used successor to the former War Measures Act. Trudeau used this extreme legislation this past February in an attempt to crush the peaceful convoy protesters after they'd demonstrated in Ottawa for nearly a month.
In today's report, we'll bring you an interview with Karahalios following his appearance at the commission. As one of the early organizers behind the Freedom Convoy, Dichter was called to the stand to testify.
Karahalios, who studied law at the University of Ottawa before entering politics, spoke to us about why he decided to represnt Dichter during the convoy and his view of Freedom Corp. — a group of other key figures in the convoy which includes Tamara Lich, Chris Barber and Tom Marazzo.
The New Blue leader also touched on Dichter's relationship with Marazzo and a whole lot more. The things Dichter said, and Karahalios told Rebel News, were quite different from what Marazzo and Keith Wilson, a lawyer for the convoy, recalled during their testimonies. This tension between the convoy figures was on full display when another convoy lawyer, Brendan Miller, cross-examined Dichter.
Although the inquiry is set to continue for nearly another three weeks, Dichter and his counsel, Karahalios, were not given standing, which means they will not be allowed to cross-examine any of the other witnesses appearing in front of the commission.
It's a ruse!
Jim Karahalios<vote@jimkarahalios.ca> | Thu, Nov 1, 2018 at 5:41 PM | ||||
| To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com> | |||||
| |||||
---------- Original message ----------
From: Premier of Ontario | Premier ministre de l’Ontario <Premier@ontario.ca>
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2018 22:01:14 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Problem with PC Policy Convention I talked
to Michael Crase and he played dumb once it dawned on him he was in
over his head
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for your email. Your thoughts, comments and input are greatly valued.
You can be assured that all emails and letters are carefully read,
reviewed and taken into consideration.
There may be occasions when, given the issues you have raised and the
need to address them effectively, we will forward a copy of your
correspondence to the appropriate government official. Accordingly, a
response may take several business days.
Thanks again for your email.
______
Merci pour votre courriel. Nous vous sommes très reconnaissants de
nous avoir fait part de vos idées, commentaires et observations.
Nous tenons à vous assurer que nous lisons attentivement et prenons en
considération tous les courriels et lettres que nous recevons.
Dans certains cas, nous transmettrons votre message au ministère
responsable afin que les questions soulevées puissent être traitées de
la manière la plus efficace possible. En conséquence, plusieurs jours
ouvrables pourraient s’écouler avant que nous puissions vous répondre.
Merci encore pour votre courriel.
Office of the Premier <scott.moe@gov.sk.ca>, premier
< premier@gov.sk.ca>, premier <premier@gov.ab.ca>, premier
< premier@gnb.ca>, PREMIER <PREMIER@gov.ns.ca>, "blaine.higgs"
< blaine.higgs@gnb.ca>, "brian.gallant" <brian.gallant@gnb.ca>,
"David.Coon" <David.Coon@gnb.ca>, krisaustin
< krisaustin@peoplesalliance.ca
< andrew.scheer@parl.gc.ca>, "maxime.bernier"
< maxime.bernier@parl.gc.ca>
Jim Karahalios and Brian Patterson did not bother to return my calls
We shall see if they answer my emails just like YOU the Ford and
Mulroney people never did.
On 10/30/18, Tanya Granic Allen <tanya@pafe.ca> wrote:
> Dear David,
>
> In follow-up to yesterday's email (click here
> < http://www.pafe.ca/problem_
> haven’t yet), I want to update you on problematic developments with the PC
> Party Policy Convention& General Meeting taking place November 16-18 in
> Toronto.
>
> For the past few months, the policy debate and votes, and the voting on
> constitutional amendments was scheduled to take place in the daytime hours
> of Saturday, November 17.
>
> This past weekend, though, I was made aware that the Doug Ford controlled
> “Convention Committee” recently voted to make a radical change to the
> program.
>
> Now, the designated voting times for the policy proposals, constitutional
> amendments, and the executive will be taking place the next day - on SUNDAY
> morning starting at the early hour of 7am! (7am for executive elections, 9am
> for policy and constitutional amendments).
>
> Voting on policies and the executive early Sunday morning starting at 7am?!
> This isn't right.
>
> I know the PC Party is aware that pro-family delegates were elected in big
> numbers for this convention. Is this possibly why the Ford-appointed
> Convention Committee moved the voting times to when many delegates would be
> attending church services, or would otherwise have family commitments?
> According to a senior PC Party official I spoke with yesterday, the change
> in schedule was to accommodate "set-up" for the Doug Ford dinner on the
> Saturday evening.
>
> I don't think it's right that preparations for dinner with Doug Ford should
> take all day Saturday. Surely this can’t be the real reason that, with this
> last-minute change of schedule, hundreds of delegates will be now be
> inconvenienced and possibly required to miss their church services. Isn't
> Team Ford supposed to be providing a government "for the people"? Maybe it
> is the government for some people only, and not for others. And maybe this
> same ethos is being applied to how the PC Party is being run?
>
> Furthermore, it seems that most of the pro-family policy proposals have been
> omitted from the convention. The Party decided against many of our
> grassroots policies that were endorsed by party members throughout Ontario –
> policies addressing Bill 89 (kids being removed from their home if parents
> disagree with them changing their sex), Bill 28 (removing the words “mother”
> and “father” in the birth registration process), and Bill 77 (banning
> therapy for children who think they want to change their sex). The PC Party
> even censored and suppressed my policy resolutions that opposed gender
> identity theory, EVEN THOUGH, as recently as this past February, Doug Ford
> himself described gender identity theory as nothing more than “Liberal
> ideology” <https://www.youtube.com/
>
> If you are going to boast that you are going to “listen to the people”, then
> you need to listen. Omitting grassroots policies, and rearranging the voting
> time to early Sunday morning is exclusionary.
>
> Is this our new party? Or is the new Doug Ford PC Party using the old
> Patrick Brown tricks?
>
> We need to voice our concerns. I have already raised my concerns with the
> Executive Director of the Ontario PC Party – Michael Crase - in a lengthy
> conversation yesterday. Now it's your turn.
>
> At this point, I think the best persons you can approach to act on our
> behalf are the two gentlemen running for PC Party President - Jim Karahalios
> and Brian Patterson.
>
> Can you contact Brian Patterson or Jim Karahalios and ask them to do
> something? Tell them we need to bring back voting to Saturday and include
> all the grassroots policies - not just the handpicked ones that meet the
> approval of a select few.
>
> You can reach them at the following:
>
> Jim Karahalios
> vote@jimkarahalios.ca <mailto:vote@jimkarahalios.ca>
> 416-789-1555
>
> Brian Patterson
> questions@forthemembers.ca <mailto:questions@
> 416-574-5546
>
> Email me at tanya@pafe.ca <mailto:tanya@pafe.ca> and let me know what they
> say.
>
> For the family,
>
>
>
> Tanya Granic Allen, President
>
>
>
> Your donation to Parents As First Educators (PAFE)helps us fight for
> parental rights! <https://pafe.nationbuilder.
> Please make a donation today by clicking here.
> < https://pafe.nationbuilder.
>
>
>
> -=-=-
> Parents As First Educators Inc. - Canada
> This email was sent to motomaniac333@gmail.com. To stop receiving emails:
> http://www.pafe.ca/unsubscribe
> -=-=-
Truckers on the Frontlines of Freedom | Tamara Lich and Tammy Peterson | EP 369
#Wexit Founders Are Far-Right Conspiracy Theorists
Two main organizers behind #Wexit, the campaign calling for Canada’s prairie provinces to secede, have a prolific history of pushing far-right and anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.
Over the past year, Peter Downing, an ex-RCMP officer and Patrick King, a self-styled journalist, have accused Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government of “normalizing pedophilia,” tolerating ISIS terrorists penetrating the country apparently disguised as refugees, and pursuing an immigration policy aimed to “depopulate the white, Anglo-Saxon race.”
Their secessionist campaign is represented by the #Wexit hashtag, which trended on Twitter last week after the Liberals won a minority government in the federal election. #Wexit stands for Western Canada Exit, a movement calling for Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and even B.C. to leave the rest of Canada to become separate nation-states. The goal is to form a “nationalist” party in Alberta like the Bloc Quebecois while steadily working towards full separation.
The main #Wexit Facebook group, VoteWexit.com, more than doubled in size after the election and currently sits at over 250,000 members. The #Wexit Alberta Facebook page, created this June, sits at just under 30,000 likes.
The founder of these pages is Downing, a former RCMP constable who served in both St. Albert and Morinville, Alberta, and whose own Facebook page has over 10,000 likes. According to a now-deleted report by the St. Albert Gazette, Downing was suspended in 2010 for uttering threats to his wife. He was eventually convicted, but ended up leaving the force with a clean record after completing a nine-month probationary term.
VICE reached out to the RCMP for comment on Downing but did not hear back by press time.
Downing also ran in the 2015 federal election for the Christian Heritage Party, which states in its latest platform that it’s against Sharia law and other “Islamic cultural practices” like “inhumane animal slaughter (Halal slaughter).”
One of VoteWexit.com’s Facebook admins is Downing’s Alberta Fights Back lobby group, which was behind a billboard campaign in the province this June targeting the Trudeau Liberals. The billboards asked, “Is Trudeau leading us to a civil war?” Phrases like “Normalizing Pedophilia,” “Mass Immigration,” “Socialism/Communism” and “Globalism” were printed above the main text.
When asked by VICE about what he meant by “normalizing pedophilia,” Downing said, “The Trudeau Foundation printed a document with the symbol used by pedophiles and you just can’t ignore it.” He’s referring to a triangular graphic used by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation on one of its annual reports that vaguely resembles something the FBI uncovered in a child abuse investigation.
Downing also linked Trudeau to other, now-debunked rumours: that Trudeau left a school he worked at over a sex-scandal, and that the Canadian government might be involved in its own version of “Pizzagate,” a conspiracy theory which falsely connected U.S. Democratic politicians to a child sex ring.
King is one of Downing’s main #Wexit co-campaigners and a member of the #Wexit Alberta board of directors. He also posts numerous videos of himself on Facebook pushing racist, far-right conspiracy theories, including one where he talks about the “depopulation of the Anglo-Saxon race” by global forces seeking to marginalize white people because “they’re the ones with the strongest blood lines.”
“There’s a smear campaign against white people right now where when we speak up, we’re called racist, anti-Semite, or xenophobe,” King said. “True-blooded Canadians are being weeded out while our corrupt government is letting in ISIS terrorists across the border.”
King is referring to the thousands of “irregular border crossers” who’ve come into Canada to seek protective asylum. Less than half a percent have been linked to a serious, criminal past.
King also pointed out how Ottawa is ignoring the plight of real, “true-blooded” Canadians while giving “ISIS terrorists like Omar Khadr millions of dollars in compensation for violating his human rights.” Khadr, a child soldier who was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay and in Alberta, has never been linked to the ISIS terrorist group.
The Anti-Racist Canada blog, along with the Yellow Vests Canada Exposed Twitter page, have aggregated numerous videos and posts by King with similar messaging.
A handful of Downing and King’s information sessions have been recorded in full and posted onto the #Wexit Alberta Facebook page. They show relatively innocuous talks and discussions on Alberta separating from Canada.
Downing insists that his movement is not racist. But a closer look at the comments made in the #Wexit Facebook groups and pages reveal racist, often violent discussions that mirror the same far-right views that Downing and King present—some comparing Muslims to termites and rapists.
Their discussions reflect conspiracy theories prevalent throughout the Canadian far-right that have weaponized Islamophobia against the Trudeau government, which they believe is courting radical Islam for votes while hollowing out Canadian values.
Many of these hateful posts suggest that participants feel comfortable expressing these views within the #Wexit space.
Follow Steven on Twitter.
What the Truckers Do and Do Not Want
Interview with Canadian Trucker Convoy Leader
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwtgc2fsw2A&ab_channel=MikhailaPetersonInterview with Canadian Trucker Convoy Leader - MP Podcast #138
In this episode, Mikhaila hosts B.J. Dichter who is a trucker, spokesperson, and organizer of the Freedom Convoy Protest that has been moving around different Canadian cities in the last few months in response to mandates on truckers imposed through the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown regulations and currently is set up in downtown Ottawa. Benjamin explains the details concerning the protests, a call for a return to the pre-pandemic working conditions in regards to the transportation infrastructure of the Canadian economy.
Peterson and Dichter cover the primary questions Canadians and people around the world are posing on the purpose, intent, and institution of the freedom convoy protest.
The pair cover the following topics in this special relevant interview,
The use of automatic data tracking apps sanctioned by the government.
Is this about being anti-vax?
Is this a blockade of trucks impeding the cities traffic?
The Mayor’s order for local businesses to close?
Is this an alt-right dangerous movement with a lot of non-Canadians participating?
What happened to the statues and flags getting all the negative media coverage?
Has there been any violence?
Have tow trucks been asked to move the trucks?
Interaction with the Ottawa police?
The most recent news on the emergency measure acts.
What happened to all the donations to the freedom convoy?
Ways to support the protest
If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to subscribe!
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Follow B.J. on Twitter @BJdichter
https://twitter.com/BJdichter?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Follow Tamera on Twitter @Tamera_mvc
https://mobile.twitter.com/tamara_mvc
For more news and donation options see
Give Send Go
Freedomconvoy.locals.com
Tallycoin drive
https://www.freedomconvoy.ca/
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Show Notes
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[00:00] Introduction to the episode guest Benjamin Dichter, a trucker and operational spokesperson for the freedom convoy trucker protest in Ottawa, Canada.
[02:14] What is the purpose of the freedom convoy protest? Coming directly from one of the four official convoy nominated leaders.
[06:11] What does the situation in Ottawa look like currently?
[11:31] Are the protestors causing chaos and disrespecting the community and landmarks in hateful acts according to the stories we have heard from the media in recent weeks?
[16:05] Has there been any violence at the protest in Ottawa?
[17:36] The current relationship between the protestors and the local police.
[21:08] What was the deal with the tow trucks hauling the parked truckers away?
[22:38] What is the current status with Trudeau’s invocation of the emergency measures act?
[25:34] Who was donating to the convoy and what happened to the donations recently?
[30:16] Discourse on internal struggles within the current Canadian administration on how to handle the protestor’s demands.
[35:51] Wrapping up the interview with Benjamin Dichter
#MikhailaPeterson #FreedomConvoy #CovidMandates #BJDichter
‘Freedom is sometimes a messy business’: The Freedom Convoy’s former spokesman Benjamin Dichter’s view of three weeks that paralyzed Ottawa
By Ellin Bessner
Benjamin Dichter, a spokesperson for the Freedom Convoy that occupied Ottawa for three weeks in early 2022. (Supplied photo)
Benjamin Dichter became a national news figure as spokesman for the Freedom Convoy which paralyzed Ottawa for three weeks in the winter of 2022—long enough to become the subject of fascination beyond these borders on Fox News and elsewhere, but also the target of some criticism.
However his own Jewish parents might have been his toughest audience of all.
He tried – in vain – to explain why he joined the thousands who converged on Parliament Hill to protest against vaccine mandates and the ArriveCan app, given that he was fully vaccinated against COVID.
“They think I’m a meshuhgah, but we love each other,” Dichter says, describing the scene with his 70-something Mom and Dad, in an interview in early December with The CJN Daily from his Toronto home.
“This was a movement for freedom,” says Dichter, 46, who’s promoting a new book about his experiences: Honking for Freedom: The Truckers Convoy that Gave us Hope.
“And I think everybody in the medical community understands that we’re not against that, but we are against being forced.”
Published on Remembrance Day
The book was co-written with John Goddard, although Dichter insists it was much more than a ghostwriting effort. Goddard, a former journalist with the Toronto Star, spent days observing the convoy, and did extensive interviews and research about some of the main storylines.
They decided to self-publish right away and sell it through Amazon, he says, rather than shop it around. (Conservative journalist Andrew Lawton had a best-seller earlier this year with his account of events, which was published by Sutherland House.)
The publication date was intentionally slated for Nov. 11, on Remembrance Day.
Dichter was ordered to Ottawa in early November to testify before the federal government’s current public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act. The Trudeau government invoked the Act on Feb. 14, giving it special powers that then helped police clear the convoy, and remove border blockades in other parts of the country.
“I think there’s enough people in our political class who need to be reminded as to the significance of Nov. 11,” Dichter says.
“People didn’t storm the beaches of Normandy so these lobbyists and political hacks can turn our country into [a] banana republic.”
As part of its special powers, Ottawa forced banks to freeze the accounts, credit cards and credit lines of the protest organizers. Dichter acknowledges that all but one of his accounts was reactivated as soon as the act was lifted Feb. 23— but eight days passed when he couldn’t access money.
“I couldn’t go buy myself a cup of coffee with a broken ankle (he had slipped on ice outside an Ottawa hotel). I couldn’t go buy myself medicine. Some of the drivers who have diabetes, they couldn’t buy themselves insulin.
“This was the government attacking us.“
Months later, he still sees consequences in his financial situation.
One of his accounts with the Royal Bank—which he doesn’t often use—was off-limits even in early December because his client card did not work. He was told by a clerk that the account remained frozen because of the sanctions from February.
He actually is a trucker
Before the Freedom Convoy took over downtown Ottawa, Dichter had an eclectic career. The graduate of Toronto’s Associated Hebrew Schools worked as a gemologist and diamond grader in Europe.
He’d subsequently operated a printing shop near the former Ryerson University campus in Toronto. He ran (unsuccessfully) for Toronto city council in 2014, and (also unsuccessfully) for the federal Conservatives in the 2015 election.
And, together with one of his brothers, he bought a big rig truck. It gave them the opportunity to haul products to the northeastern United States—including loads of maple syrup.
But Dichter came to the attention of Alberta-based Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich because of his reputation as a podcast producer, including for right-wing media personalities like Tom Quiggin—a former Canadian military veteran who advocates for free speech, and opines with conspiracy theories about Islamic terrorism.
Lich had organized smaller protests by oil and gas workers from her home in Medicine Hat, and she had ties to the Yellow Vest movement in Canada, which was inspired by demonstrations in France.
Dichter was invited to join the team to handle communications, as the convoy began driving east from B.C. and Alberta towards the National Capital Region. And he came up with a motto he hoped would show the protests were all about “peace, love, unity and freedom.”
‘Canada’s Woodstock moment’: Dichter
At every turn, Dichter tried to keep spreading the message to convince Canadians that the truckers were participating in a “Woodstock” moment, with no desire to do anything violent.
“That’s why they were feeding the homeless. They had a soup kitchen. They were building saunas and hot tubs and having dance parties,” he recounts.
News reports reflected such scenes, but Ottawa police also laid over 500 charges against the protesters—including for assault, and uttering threats against law enforcement personnel. (The RCMP also seized truckloads of weapons and made arrests when they cleared a border protest in Coutts, Alta.)
And if there was goodwill that preceded the convoy’s arrival in Ottawa in January, that changed after scenes of a woman emerged showing her dancing on the National War Memorial—which Dichter brands as “fake.” News reports told of downtown shoppers being harassed, and then local residents filed a class-action lawsuit to stop incessant honking from the idling trucks. The claim was that it interfered with their daily activities and mental health.
Dichter denies the honking was part of the protesters’ strategy, rather insisting the noise was more like some dogs barking to say “hello” on a summer night. (He also claims he didn’t hear much honking while he was walking the streets.)
The Nazi flag changed everything
As for the most damaging scenes, of Nazi and Confederate flags being spotted among the protesters, Dichter downplayed them at the time. “Who cares?” he told journalists in late January—which became the focus of an episode of The CJN Daily.
But these symbols inevitably galvanized public opinion and brought condemnation from federal politicians across the political spectrum. They also sparked a private members’ bill adopted in the House of Commons to ban the use of hate symbols.
The Nazi flag in particular also led to a heated exchange in the House of Commons between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman, now deputy leader. Trudeau accused Lantsman, the descendant of Holocaust survivors, of standing with people who wave Nazi flags.
Jewish groups were understandably outraged by it all. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs issued a news release Jan. 30 condemning the small minority of protesters who “shamefully” used Nazi symbols and were “misappropriating” the Star of David symbol to “advance their political objectives.”
Flag ‘staged’: new book
But today, Dichter offers a different explanation for where the flags came from: he says they were staged by political actors who wanted to make the Freedom Convoy look bad.
Who does he accuse of being behind it?
Not the known Holocaust deniers from fringe, far-right-wing elements who were part of the protest, but the Liberal government.
Dichter writes in Honking for Freedom that the flag was carried as a plant, and cited reports from a Rebel News journalist who said that several photographers with Liberal ties arranged to be there when the flag appeared near the Chateau Laurier hotel.
But now, he acknowledges the theory has holes in it, and it might have been someone with Conservative ties instead.
At the inquiry, a convoy lawyer suggested the man suspected of carrying the flag is Brian Cox, who works for a Conservative lobbying group. (Cox insists he has not been in Ottawa in years and threatened to sue for libel if the allegations were not retracted.)
In light of these developments, Dichter says he won’t revise his manuscript, explaining that it would be a waste of time to file Freedom of Information requests to find out more.
Reluctantly revealed his Jewish faith
Despite this waffling, he admits that those hateful symbols worked against the Freedom Convoy, no matter who was behind them.
Which is why within hours of the Nazi flag photos making their way through social media, Dichter held a media conference in an undisclosed location in Ottawa with the convoy organizers. It was by invitation only, and no mainstream news organizations were invited. (The CJN was also not invited, and a subsequent interview that night with us was cancelled.)
Dichter explains why he counterattacked by asserting his Jewish religious identity, while also revealing the backgrounds of the convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, too.
“Listen, she’s Metis, I’m Jewish. We have a whole bunch of people here. We have Sikhs here. So button it up and let’s move on,” he recalled telling the journalists.
Did it help?
“It definitely did…you can see the collective ‘Oh, okay. So if we keep going in this direction, this Dichter guy is going to come out with a kippah and tallis’.”
Dichter was adopted into a Jewish family in Toronto. After attending Associated Hebrew Schools, and having a bar mitzvah, he graduated from public high school at York Mills Collegiate.
When he was being sworn in to testify before the Emergencies Act inquiry on Nov. 3, he insisted on using a Torah for the ceremony, although he was miffed because they had only an English-language version of the Old Testament.
“For me, it’s got to be in Hebrew. That’s just my thing.”
Crossed the line
Dichter claims he is opposed to what he calls identity politics focused on someone’s race. While active in the Conservative party, he formed a group called LGBTory, dedicated to helping gay and lesbian partisans feel welcome. However, in the past, Dichter has himself been accused of making comments that could be described as Islamophobic.
If he could do it over again, Dichter would have banned some of the most vicious conspiracy theorists from the Freedom Convoy from the get-go. He swears he tried to, but they wouldn’t go home.
Although he describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” he also worried that some of their videos crossed the line of Canadian hate-speech legislation.
Being part of the convoy served to catapult some of these fringe protesters from what Dichter calls “mouthy” nobodies to a much wider and more dangerous platform than they had originally enjoyed. James Bauder—one of the original organizers—is a supporter of the antisemitic and homophobic QAnon conspiracy group, and called for overthrowing the Canadian government. He was arrested and is awaiting trial.
Another volunteer, Pat King, now also facing trial, incited people to put a “bullet” into the prime minister’s head. (He has since apologized for the comments.) Jeremy MacKenzie, the founder of. the far-right Diagolon movement, based in Nova Scotia, has since been charged for 13 weapons offences related to anti-mask protests.
Dichter thinks the real danger for Canadian Jews comes instead from those who are inside the corridors of government in Ottawa, including inside the political parties themselves. And he urges community leaders to focus on fighting antisemitism there.
“We ignore or excuse away sometimes the people who have power and are a real danger to us. And for me, quite frankly, it’s embarrassing (that people think) that we’re living in the 1940s, that the Third Reich is coming around the corner. No, that’s 80 years ago.
“The threat is completely different now, and everybody is ignoring it because of diversity.”
The protests found some support in the Jewish community. Some people decried the vaccine mandates and the resulting job losses for people who refused to get vaccinated.
Dichter describes finding allies in Ottawa’s Lubavitch community. In his book, he writes that they came out every Sunday to convoy prayer services, and asked him to put on tefillin.
In his book, he said he met a religious Jewish woman in the crowd holding up a sign equating vaccine mandates with the swastika. What she meant, he said, was the Trudeau government was acting like Nazis.
Correct ‘inaccuracies’
With the convoy attracting international attention and filling hours of news coverage—and an expected report still to come from the judge conducting the inquiry in early 2023—Dichter was asked what more he hopes his book can contribute to the conversation about the largest mass protest in Canadian history.
He intends it to provide some “accurate” behind-the-scenes glimpses of life in Ottawa during those heady below-zero days, rather than leaving the final word to the politicians, and the journalists who he accuses of toeing the party line.
”In the future, I want people to be able to look back and read this and see what actually went on.”
He delves into his three weeks shuttling between hotels, including breaking an ankle and having orthopedic surgery in hospital, surviving a car accident, evading arrest, and the infighting between members of the convoy’s organizing committee and their lawyers and hangers-on, who had their own agendas.
But the aftermath of the protest continues. Dichter is still in pain from his ankle injury, when he slipped on the ice, which he refers to as a “battle scar.”
He’s also facing that massive class-action lawsuit brought by Ottawa residents who are seeking over $300-million in damages. Whether the defendants, including Dichter, will be able to afford to fight it is currently unclear.
The $23 million raised for the truckers via crowdfunding campaigns was frozen last winter, at the request of the Canadian government. Some money has already been returned to donors. The rest is in escrow.
The convoy’s lawyers are asking the courts to overturn this, so that Dichter and his co-organizers can afford counsel.
So, as a self-published author, he also needs to sell a lot of books. The back-cover blurb on Honking for Freedom is an enthusiastic endorsement from Jordan Peterson.
But he also hopes the readers will realize that, despite everything, the Freedom Convoy was a success. Restrictions were lifted by provincial governments in the subsequent weeks, and vaccine mandates for travellers were gradually repealed, including the ArriveCan app.
Meanwhile, some government officials have been busy preparing for a repeat scenario, in which protesters go ahead with a planned Freedom Convoy 2.0 in February 2023. The apparent organizer James Bauder, who is facing charges, already posted on his Facebook page calling for a short four-day “olive branch” edition to take place in Ottawa on the Family Day Weekend.
Dichter dismisses the idea. He’s told the group as much.
“Some of those people, they just want to be famous at any cost and they don’t understand how dangerous any sort of fame can be, but they’re just desperate for it.”
‘Who cares’ about swastikas in the trucker convoy, group’s Jewish spokesperson asks
This weekend, a convoy of protesters, including truckers and those opposed to mandatory vaccine passports, reached Ottawa after days of a cross-country tour from British Columbia to the capital. Parts of Canada’s Jewish community agree with the protesters—however, their goodwill hit pause after scenes emerged of a swastika flag, among other racist emblems, waving from within the convoy.
The main spokesperson for the truckers is Benjamin Dichter, a Jewish activist from Toronto. When asked specifically about the swastika, he brushed the question off: “People troll, do stupid things, whatever. Who cares?”
Dichter couldn’t be interviewed in time for this episode of The CJN Daily podcast—we hope to speak with him this week. Instead, today we’ll hear from Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman, who is sympathetic to the convoy’s cause but livid about the displays of antisemitism, as well as Andrea Freedman, president of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa.
What we talked about:
- Watch the trucker convoy’s live stream on YouTube
- Watch the clip of the spokesperson’s press conference on YouTube
- Swastikas and other symbols of hate displayed at Ottawa protest aren’t just offensive—they’re dangerous, says Andrea Freedman, CEO of Ottawa’s Jewish Federation
- Learn more about the veteran Marvin Gord who walked miles for Baycrest at benjaminsparkmemorialchapel.ca
Credits
The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.
The Freedom Convoy’s Renegade Jew
Benjamin Dichter, the free-thinking, radical nonconformist at the heart of Canada’s trucker protests, continues a long history of Jewish social activism
For two weeks this past February, Benjamin Dichter was thrust into the absurdist spotlight of modern political celebrity. A trucker-led convoy opposed to Canada’s digital COVID vaccine passport system had paralyzed downtown Ottawa, inspired the wildcat occupation and shutdown of several U.S.-Canadian border crossings, and provoked a quasi-authoritarian response from the Canadian government, which forcibly dispersed the protesters’ encampment, jailed the movement’s leaders, summarily froze their bank accounts, and seized, blocked, or escrowed nearly all of the estimated $20 million in non-bitcoin-based funds they’d raised. As chief media spokesman for the so-called Freedom Convoy, Dichter was the public face of one side of a shocking Canadian civic crackup. Depending on your point of view, the Freedom Convoy was either the unexpected culmination of the developed world’s COVID-era class war and a dark vision of the technocratic liberal state’s oppressive game plan, or an event that showed how easily marching hordes of ignorant and hateful populists could rise from the fringes to hijack a modern democracy. Dichter became the face of the former camp; the latter belonged to Justin Trudeau, dreamboat liberal champion and head of government of a country of 38 million people.
As the Ottawa police cleared the trucker protests in late February, convoy organizers like Tamara Lich were taken into custody and Dichter’s lawyers advised him to leave the Canadian capital—even a criminal mischief charge might subject Dichter to a gag order, they told him, making it illegal for him to speak about the aggressive law enforcement tactics he’d witnessed. “There were checkpoints every two blocks, police looking at people in cars,” he told me of his escape from downtown Ottawa by Uber. “And I’m like, ‘OK, I’ll put my hood up.’”
The Canadian government used a loose interpretation of terrorism financing rules to neutralize the convoy and its leadership even before Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act on Valentine’s Day, becoming the first prime minister in his country’s history to resort to this civic nuclear option. For a period of eight days, Dichter said, “I was effectively de-banked completely. Credit lines, credit cards, my corporate account for my trucking company, myself, everything—everything was blocked.” Severing your opponents from their own money without due process, even for only a few days, is a highly efficient way of paralyzing them and discouraging any further activity you don’t like, which turns out to be as true in a boring and peaceful democracy as it is anywhere else.
Dichter briefly returned home to Toronto to regroup. By mid-March, he was in one of North America’s natural collection points for people who are nearing the end of some major ordeal, though in the majority of cases in Boca Raton that ordeal is nothing less than life itself. We met that month in a coffee shop under the shady archways of a floridly fake but also weirdly credible recreation of a Spanish plaza. The pieces of an oversize chess set stood arrayed for battle in a landscaped strip of lawn running through the middle of the complex. Twice in the course of our two-and-a-half-hour conversation, young children arrived to hurl the large plastic pieces at one another, which their parents would restore to their original position once the combat ended.
Even in uncool Boca, a supercar zooms by every few minutes. It took Dichter, sitting in the shade with his back to the street, just two attempts to correctly identify a black Corvette C8 roadster by the sound of its engine. “It has the baffles removed, that’s why it’s harder to tell,” Dichter explained of his initial failure, adding, “I always played music by ear, so I do everything auditory.” A nearby old man pushing a dog in a stroller, a startlingly poignant tableaux in Boca or anywhere else on earth, made no sound at all.
Dichter’s parents live in Delray Beach, Florida—his elderly father is now a daily minyan-goer, and Dichter had spent part of the morning taking him to shul. In a few days, Dichter, who is 46, would be leaving for a brief visit to Colombia, where he’d moved as a younger man after quitting his job as a project manager with Harley Davidson, picking up friendships and Spanish-language skills that are still intact. Later that afternoon, the Toronto-based gemologist-turned-commercial printer-turned-crypto investor-turned-podcast producer-turned-trucker-turned-Tucker Carlson- and Jordan Peterson-approved political lightning rod was heading to the house of “a very popular lesbian, Jewish, pro-Israel, journalist from Canada” for yet another interview.
Way back in February, Trudeau’s faceoff with the convoy looked like a major event in the history of North American democracy, an idea of government that both left and right believe to be in mortal danger from the other side. A lot has happened since then, including a societywide decision to move on from the pandemic, and a once-in-a-generation European war. But in the clearest sign that the convoy and the issues it raised would linger even as the event itself faded from view, Dichter openly wondered whether it was still possible for him to even live in Canada. “We may all have permanent flags on our banking record,” he explained of himself and other convoy-related figures who had their assets frozen. “So that means if I go to open another business account, or if we’re working on a foundation—anything—I’m going to get asked a whole lot of questions and maybe denied a bank account. Am I going to stay in that country if that’s my circumstance? No fucking way.”
Dichter wore a blank, ashy-green T-shirt and slightly baggy khaki shorts that stopped just below the knees. One of his lower legs was in a cast—he’d wiped out on an icy sidewalk in Ottawa during the frantic early days of the demonstration. Silvering hair topped a pleasant, reassuringly soft and strikingly youthful face. Nothing about his general bearing exposed him as any kind of a political flack. There were no points in the interview where it felt like Dichter was desperate for me to believe any of what he said, which is the difference between him and a professional flack, and also maybe part of the reason both Dichter and the convoy movement captured so much popular attention. At times he talked as if involvement in the convoy had just kind of naturally arisen out of the conditions of his varied and often itinerant life. “I look forward to being not-important again and getting back in my truck,” he told me. But at other times, he talked as if his participation emerged out of inescapable and specifically Canadian conditions, aspects of national life that troubled him and that also seemed to trouble a large number of his countrymen and countrywomen, people who had been formed within and against the mentalities and prejudices and neuroses of their homeland.
Dichter was adopted at birth—“there’s this very famous Canadian, Brigadier General Denis Whitaker, that’s our biological grandfather,” he said, referring to his three other blood siblings. His adoptive parents, the ones now in Delray, are Jewish, and he spent formative years in day school in Toronto. “Half of the day was Hebrew, and half of the day it was English until grade seven.”
After graduating from George Brown College in Toronto and HRD Antwerp, Dichter spent an unsatisfying five years in the gem trade—“I liked the science part of it,” he said of that abandoned first career—followed by a run of different jobs and his stint in Colombia. Years ago, Dichter explained, he had invented and patented a magnetic pad meant to protect the more delicate regions of male speed-bike riders, a shield against one of the literal hazards of the “crotch rocket.”
He bought bitcoin for the first time in 2015, giving him experience that later came in handy during the convoy, when around 100 truckers received $8,000 in bitcoin vouchers for fuel and other costs, which Dichter says is the only money out of nearly $20 million raised across various platforms that the Canadian government and its collaborators in the private sector failed to keep away from the demonstrators. He began producing podcasts for Tom Quiggin, a former Canadian intelligence officer whom Dichter described as “a real-life Jack Ryan.” Growing restless, Dichter exited the commercial printing industry after a decade of owning his own shop in Toronto. Then a biological brother of his who worked in law enforcement surprised him by asking: “‘Why don’t you get your trucker license?’ Where the hell is this coming from, I asked. He said, ‘Well, you sold your business, it’s just something to do, and they’re going to be increasing the price to get a license by, like, tenfold within the next six months.’” Dichter and his brother started making runs into New York and Connecticut in their very own Volvo VNL 670 semitruck just a few months before the pandemic hit.
The libertarian-minded Dichter developed an immediate allergy to Canada’s invasive public health regime. “The whole COVID thing, I really didn’t change anything,” he recalled, speaking of his own mentality toward the personal and communal health risk. This was a bit of a challenge in Canada, which has a civic religion of trust in benign government authority, and where national policy determines local conditions far more than in the United States. At the start of the pandemic, Trudeau demanded, and in many cases obtained, the personal authority to borrow and spend by decree—executive powers that would be unthinkable under the American system. But it was still possible to find dissenters, especially in small-town and medium-town western Canada, where Dichter says the COVID lockdowns were particularly disruptive. In Medicine Hat, in hardscrabble southeast Alberta, he had a podcast listener named Tamara Lich, a “politically connected” right-wing activist and one-time Albertan separatist of Metis indigenous heritage who had worked in the oil industry.
In 2018, Lich had organized a different trucker convoy to oppose various regulations on oil and gas in western Canada. “But they made the mistake of getting involved with the Conservative Party,” Dichter said, which he now disparages as “the spineless weasel” party. In 2014, at a time when he had far more confidence in the country’s partisan system, Dichter ran as a Conservative candidate for City Council in Toronto, earning what he calls a respectable 10% of the vote in a “communist” part of town. As Lich, Dichter, and other organizers contemplated a new convoy opposed to COVID lockdowns and Canada’s digitized national vaccine passport, Dichter advised against aligning the effort with any party or faction—even or especially ones inclined to support them. This is where other convoys, including the one that had recently circled the capital Beltway in Washington, D.C., went wrong, in Dichter’s view. By seeking the validation of officeholders, Dichter explained, their protest would be contained within the cheapening limits of partisan politics, when it should have been about something bigger and more important than the question of which segment of the elite should rule them. “If you notice, Ted Cruz did a photo op with the truckers and then all of a sudden there’s no more coverage anymore because it’s, ‘Yeah, I hear you, time for you guys to go home.’” He paused: “That’s not a knock against Ted Cruz particularly, especially since he’s a proponent of bitcoin. So thank God for that.”
It is the wariness of the convoy movement toward not just the ruling Liberal Party but the entire normal run of politics that made it appear so threatening to many Canadians. As J.J. McCullough explained in a March Washington Post column, “Many of Canada’s most determined ideologues are becoming quite skilled at physically disruptive acts of political rebellion,” leading to the “growing popularity of using force and physicality to alter Canada’s political conversation.” The truckers’ willingness to occupy the capital and shut down border crossings—a mirror to left-wing and indigenous activists’ successful shutdown of oil pipeline construction and drilling sites—presented an additional crisis for a fraying Canadian ethic of either voluntary or enforced social harmony. The Canadian equivalent of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is “peace, order, and good government.” The convoy was a cry from beyond what many see as a stale and conformist political system whose helpful and conflict-adverse nature is enshrined in its very motto.
The convoy’s appearance of grassroots popularity made it even more alarming, especially to Trudeau and his circle. “There’s a guy by the name of Gerry Butts, we call him Trudeau’s brain,” says Dichter. “He’s the one who runs everything. Trudeau is just the mascot, or as he calls it, the ‘relationships manager.’ [Butts] was obsessed—obsessed—with the amount of money that we were raising because we out-fundraised every political party in Canadian history by a massive margin.” In the end, nearly all of that money was frozen, effectively blocked from being transferred to the truckers by private platforms like GoFundMe, or placed in escrow pending the results of a nuisance lawsuit against the convoy’s organizers. Even with their money withheld, the convoy was considered so dangerous to peace, order, and good government that Trudeau himself accused it of “hate, abuse, and racism,” the prime minister reaching somewhere close to the uppermost rung on the contemporary rhetorical escalation ladder.
Trudeau wasn’t the only one to characterize the convoy as a bigoted enterprise. Other critics honed in on a specific alleged bigotry: A column in the Toronto Star claimed that the convoy taught “timely lessons about the current face of antisemitism,” noting the presence of “a Nazi flag as well as other hate symbols” in downtown Ottawa, as well as the suspicious (and in the writer’s view, bad-faith) enthusiasm of convoy leaders for condemning the bigots in their ranks. The Anti-Defamation League drew on hacked information about donors who used GiveSendGo, the “Christian crowdfunding site” the convoy turned to when GoFundMe refused to transfer nearly $10 million in donations to protesters, to speciously connect the convoy to the January 6th siege of the U.S. Capitol. Dichter is not shy about sharing his belief in the fecklessness of the organized Jewish community, most of which doesn’t share his outlook on much of anything, and which he sees as doing little to help Jews or the world in general. He noted that a racist and antisemitic “troll” named Pat King who had been arrested at the Ottawa demonstration was still in custody. “I keep trying to communicate to people in the Jewish community that are celebrating this,” Dichter said. “The guy is being held because he says stupid things on the internet, and that’s a problem. He’s still in jail.” (King has been charged with various offenses related to obstructing a police operation and disobeying court orders, though some free speech advocates see these cases as pretextual.)
“If there’s something I could change within the Jewish community,” he said, “they’ve got to learn to be more libertarian. They got to learn to tolerate opinions they dislike and engage with people they dislike … right now, you’re fundraising around calling people names. And then you wonder why people don’t like us.”
Dichter made it clear he would rather not have discussed his Jewish identity at all in connection with the convoy, believing it irrelevant to the many serious issues at hand. But there is a rigid logic to how one rebuts an accusation of bigotry in the present day. “I didn’t like the fact that I had to tell people I was Jewish, but the political left is so obsessed with identity politics, and branding—everything is neo-Nazi and whatever—that I had no choice but to say, ‘Listen, Justin Trudeau, I’m Jewish, and unlike your brother, who’s made a career of producing Israel apartheid videos, by the way, I have family buried in mass graves in Europe.’ That’s the clown world we live in, and because they’re so obsessed with this as a tactic, I had to mention it.” (Dichter was exaggerating for effect here: Alexandre Trudeau is a conflict reporter and filmmaker who has written positively about Fidel Castro, and who made a 2004 documentary that cast the head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade in an apparently positive light.)
In Canada, the periphery can feel crushed and stifled by the center. Unlike in the United States, it has little systemic recourse to recover any sense of control.
Dichter is no revolutionary. His diagnosis of what ails Canadian life amounts to an unsystematic, mild populism that sees the basic unfairness and unfreedom of society as being imposed from above by a cross-partisan sliver of the national elite. “They’re extremists. And extremists can’t see beyond their own worldview. They only see their view,” Dichter said of Trudeau and Butts. I suggested that perhaps Trudeau was the opposite of a radical, and that using aggressive and novel extraconstitutional powers to crush your opponents has become a perfectly mainstream instinct in a time when vast numbers of people see the political opposition as Nazis or communists or some other variety of unthinkable and active threat to civilization. Polling bears out the idea that, whatever else he is, Trudeau could pass for a boring centrist. As McCullough noted in his Washington Post column, two-thirds of Canadian voters wanted the military to break up the trucker occupation of Ottawa. According to Dichter, though, the country’s problems lie not with a compliant citizenry but with a venal and autocratic ruling class. Ordinary Canadians, he believes, understand what’s going on. “There’s an ungodly amount of momentum and support for us,” he claimed.
In Dichter’s telling, the convoy became a proxy for Canada’s stark regional divisions, which resemble some of America’s own geographic splits. The U.S. federalist system began as an attempt to balance the interests of small and large polities; true to this intention, both the Electoral College and Congress, and even the apportionment of state-level elected delegates in places like New York, can give peripheral areas an effective veto over key aspects of policy inside of densely populated cities, which now exist in an entirely different world than small towns even a few hours into the hills. As Dichter sees it, Canada has its own mutually embittering divide between the center and the periphery, worsened by the fact that Canadian politics do not operate under a federalist system of intricate regional negotiation. In Canada, the periphery can feel crushed and stifled by the center. Unlike in the United States, it has little systemic recourse to recover any sense of control.
“When I was in Alberta, about six months before COVID, certain towns and certain smaller cities—Grande Prairie, Medicine Hat—were being turned into third world cities,” Dichter recalled. “And I can tell you that because I’ve traveled extensively throughout the third world and growing up, I always had family in Alberta.” This observation recalled then-candidate Donald Trump’s seemingly obnoxious statement that downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, “looked like a war zone”—although enough Pennsylvanians apparently agreed, since it was slight Republican gains in the state’s Rust Belt that helped deliver the real estate huckster the presidency.
Canadians discontented with the country’s social and regional tensions had no perceived ally within the mainstream political system the way the dispossessed of central Pennsylvania thought they did. Then COVID arrived, bringing with it some of the strictest lockdowns in the democratic world, policies Canadians in declining rural or energy-producing regions couldn’t escape, just as they couldn’t escape environmentally minded edicts from Ottawa meant to constrain oil and gas production. There was a time, Dichter said, when western Canada “was supporting the rest of the country through its energy sector. And now the Trudeau government decided just to turn off the switch and people had their lives ruined, their businesses ruined.”
Dichter is a globe-trotting, vaccinated, Jewish, tech-savvy Torontonian, hardly anyone’s idea of a frontier populist. But he knew enough about his country’s social divisions to know what side he was on, regardless of where he lived and what his life looked like. Dichter explained that one of his heroes is British journalist James Burke. “I grew up watching all his shows and documentaries and stuff, and he talks about how people in the modern era look to technology to solve their problems.” For example, Dichter said, consider the metropolitan faith that lockdowns and laptops could beat COVID. “Whereas people who live in rural communities and rural areas, they’re a lot more independent. So it’s a completely different worldview, and I don’t know if it’s both sides, but it’s definitely one side, that just doesn’t care to hear about the grievances of people in rural communities.” The sense of alienation in outlying Alberta explains the true origins of the convoy, even if the protest drew in supporters from every part of Canada. “That’s why it started from out west.”
I had been warned before meeting Dichter that it was unclear if he ever had any real standing within the convoy movement. Dichter had been one of six members of the Freedom Convoy board, yet he also showed a near-total lack of ego about his own role in a potentially defining event in his country’s recent history, a stance that struck me as entirely genuine. The most powerful person in Canada knows who you are and hates you, I pointed out, hoping for a colorful boast or additional anti-Trudeau trash-talk in reply. That’s a weird and potentially very uncomfortable position to be in, right? “I don’t really care,” he responded, as if he’d never thought of it that way before. “Honestly, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest bit.”
In a couple of weeks, he explained, he’d be speaking at Miami’s annual bitcoin conference, during which he’d announce the movement’s next steps (which he declined to explain). It seemed unlikely to me that the convoy rank-and-file would be paying much attention to any bitcoin conference, or to him (especially now that bitcoin has lost over half its value since April). But he happily admitted that the next phase is out of his hands. The fate of possibly $5 million in donations to the truckers that the Canadian government froze that is still in escrow depends on the outcome of a lawsuit against the trucker convoy filed in the name of a photogenic 21-year-old activist, a so-far effective means of using the legal process to deprive opponents of the government of money that is rightfully theirs. Lawyers are keeping him updated on the case, Dichter says, though he didn’t seem like he was all that closely involved. Remnants of the trucker movement were still on the move, he explained, waging protests and miniconvoys across Canada. “I saw there was a convoy that they did in Ottawa. They went to the Amazon facility. That apparently got a lot of attention,” he said. It was all out of his hands, as it might always have been.
Dichter, at least, is the image of a not very ideologically driven populist, someone whose views emerged from gradual life experience rather than some punctuated break with mainstream society. That’s how most people think and live in the world, although populist uprisings are also seldom defined by their most prudent and even-minded participants. “I ride a motorcycle 320 kilometers [200 miles] an hour,” Dichter said of his initial, not-unreasonable reaction to the COVID lockdowns. “I don’t need the government to tell me what I can and cannot do.” At my prompting, he clarified that this Canadian-denominated speed milestone was achieved on a closed racetrack, rather than a public highway.
What’s Wrong with B.J. (Benjamin) Dichter?
B.J (Benjamin) Dichter
Twitter: BJ Dichter Twitter
Role in the Freedom Convoy: Founder, Co- Fundraiser
In 2015, B.J Dichter ran as a Federal candidate for the Conservative Party. He now supports the People’s Party of Canada (29) and hosts his podcast called “Possibly Correct.”
At the People’s Party of Canada convention in 2019, B.J Dichter made statements about the “dangers of political Islamists” and went on to say that the Liberal Party is “infested with Islamists.” (30).
He added that by meeting “with extremists,” Conservative and “establishment” politicians “put at risk moderate and secular Muslims, who want nothing more but to integrate into Canada, to become Canadian, and to leave the garbage of their birth country behind them.” (31)
In the same conference, Dichter said, “Despite what our corporate media and political leaders want to admit, Islamist entryism and the adaptation of political Islam is rotting away at our society like syphilis.” (32)
To watch a video of his speech, click here. (Please exercise caution)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ct-kwjHS38&ab_channel=TruthSyrup
Shocking, courageous, honest speech at the PPC convention in Quebec by Benjamin Dichter
Official Voting Results - General Election (October 19, 2015)
| Candidate | Party | Vote | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Abbott | Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada | 354 | 0.6 |
| Julie Dabrusin | Liberal Party of Canada | 23,531 | 42.3 |
| Benjamin Dichter | Conservative Party of Canada | 5,478 | 9.9 |
| John Richardson | Progressive Canadian Party | 1,275 | 2.3 |
| Craig Scott | New Democratic Party | 22,325 | 40.2 |
| Chris Tolley | Green Party of Canada | 2,618 | 4.7 |
| Total | 55,581 | 100.00 |
- Valid ballots: 55,581
- Rejected ballots: 269
- Total ballots cast: 55,850
Benjamin Dichter at media conference for Freedom Convoy truckers slams Jewish community leaders
BJ Dichter on Freedom Convoy Canada with RT
Interview with Freedom Convoy 2022 Spokesman Ben Dichter - Viva Clip!
FULL INTERVIEW with Tamara Lich - One of Canada s Many Political Prisoners - Viva Frei
Freedom Convoy urges everyone to get to Ottawa during Preemptive SOS Press Conference | LiveFEED®
The Freedom Convoy organizers spoke at the Preemptive SOS Press Conference, where they've addressed threats made by some members of the Canadian government, including PM Justin Trudeau. Earlier, Ottawa police raided the Convoy truckers, seizing all of their fuel. According to the protest organizers, they're planning to continue the protest peacefully until the government removes all Covid restrictions and mandates. Several of Canada's provinces, including Alberta and Saskatchewan, have already lifted their restrictions and mandates this week. See more on our website at https://www.getlivefeed.com/
Freedom Convoy Update: "Hold the line" — Press Conference in English & French | LiveFEED®
22,728 views Premiered Feb 15, 2022 #LiveFEED #News #Canada Freedom Convoy holds a press conference to give an update on the recent developments in Ottawa and nationwide. Earlier Monday, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has invoked never-before-used emergency powers in order to deal with the widespread peaceful protests happening all over the country. Additionally, Trudeau has also announced plans to target protesters financially, seizing their bank accounts and other property. Notably, just earlier last week the federal judge has reaffirmed Canadians' right to continue their peaceful protest in Ottawa. The Emergencies Act invoked by Trudeau does not cover lawful protests and still has to be approved by the Parliament.Freedom Convoy: "Do the right thing, we’re fighting for our freedom." | LiveFEED®
Freedom Convoy: "Please come — our country needs you, and we need your support." | LiveFEED®
Convoy spokesman and crypto keeper tells his side of the story
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Court extends rare order to freeze up to $20M in crypto, cash donations to 'Freedom Convoy'
Injunction issued by Ontario Superior Court judge now runs until at least March 9
Rare legal move freezes cash, crypto tied to Ottawa protest
An Ontario Superior Court judge has extended a rare injunction that has frozen millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies and other financial donations to the so-called Freedom Convoy.
The Mareva injunction was issued on Feb. 17 by Justice Calum MacLeod. Law firm Lenczner Slaght brought this motion forward, acting for Champ & Associates, the law firm representing Ottawa residents in a proposed class-action lawsuit against convoy leaders and protesters.
On Monday, MacLeod extended the order until March 9 to give defendants more time to consult with their lawyer.
The injunction — restricting convoy leaders and its fundraisers from "selling, removing, dissipating, alienating, transferring, assigning" up to $20 million in assets raised around the world — stemmed from the proposed class-action lawsuit led by Ottawa public servant Zexi Li.
The lawsuit also includes Union Local 613 and local business Happy Goat Coffee, plus server Geoffrey Devaney, as plaintiffs. The class-action also brought about another injunction that helped silence incessant horn honking as hundreds of truckers and protesters poured into the nation's capital in late January, disrupting the lives of many downtown Ottawa residents.
The Mareva order freezes particular funds from its respondents: organizers Patrick King, Tamara Lich, Christopher Garrah, Nicholas St. Louis and Benjamin Dichter, alongside the non-profit Freedom 2022 Human Rights and Freedoms.
It orders respondents to provide a sworn statement within seven days that describes all assets (including cryptocurrencies) they received globally, associated with and intended to fund the convoy protests in or around Ottawa.
The order also targets banks, financial businesses, fundraising and cryptocurrency platforms, or those who manage cryptocurrency wallets, to freeze those assets — entities such as TD Canada Trust, Adopt-a-Trucker, GoFundMe Inc., Bull Bitcoin and TallyCoin, among others. This is to ensure that organizers can't redistribute those funds to keep them out of the court's reach.
In an emailed response on Monday, law firm Lenczner Slaght said none of the respondents have provided asset statements to this point.
"Whether or not they have to provide them will be decided at our next attendance on March 9," a spokesperson said.
Order is 1st of its kind, lawyer says
The order aims to potentially redistribute the donations to residents, businesses and employees of downtown Ottawa covered by the class-action lawsuit.
"It is not about stopping the Freedom Convoy from fundraising; it's about protecting assets so that class members who have been recovered can hopefully get some compensation," according to a document from Lenczner Slaght.
Justice MacLeod also said Monday the order has to do with civil damages and has "nothing to do with any criminal proceeding that may be ongoing." There are several ongoing criminal investigations related to the convoy protests.
The Mareva order is also separate from the order to freeze protesters' bank accounts, which was part of the federal Emergencies Act.
"This lawsuit is an entirely different animal," MacLeod said.
Police
work checkpoints in Ottawa on Feb. 21 after officers cleared the
occupation of downtown Ottawa that lasted almost a month. (Cole Burston/Canadian Press)
Lawyer Paul Champ said the order on convoy leaders is a "first of its kind" in Canada to freeze cryptocurrency and bitcoin. He added that Monday's hearing was a success.
"We were able to get some of the defendants to transfer all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency that was in their control to an independent escrow agent," he said.
"It was a great first step for us ... hopefully [for] compensation for the people and businesses and workers [in] downtown Ottawa."
Crypto, cash to be transferred to 3rd party
The order was extended for another 10 days to give the defendants' lawyer more time to consult with Lich, to get more information from respondents and institutions and to see if the respondents want to fight the order, Champ said.
Lawyer Norman Groot, who's representing all respondents except King, said three of the defendants have agreed to transfer their assets to a third-party account: Dichter, St. Louis and Garrah. Groot said he has not been able to get in touch with Lich, who was arrested on Feb. 17 and later denied bail.
Tamara
Lich, an organizer of Ottawa's protest, speaks with police liaison
officers on Feb. 10. She was later arrested and denied bail. Lawyer
Norman Groot has not yet been able to consult with Lich about the Mareva
order. (Patrick Doyle/Reuters)
That escrow account, which will be managed by Bobby Kofman with KSV Advisory, will hold those assets until further orders from the court.
Groot said he's not aware if Garrah has cryptocurrencies but confirmed he has cash donations in a designated bank account.
"Mr. St. Louis and Mr. Dichter are willing to co-operate, do whatever is necessary to transfer any crypto that they may control to the escrow," Groot said during Monday's hearing.
"I have not been able to confirm that may be able to satisfy all the crypto that was donated, but this is why I'm proposing we come back at a relatively soon date to update the court."
Lenczner Slaght told CBC News that it believes total crypto assets held by Dichter and St. Louis are worth about $1 million. Some of those assets "have since been moved to other cryptocurrency wallets, some of which have been claimed by truckers," its spokesperson said.
Champ estimates about $290,000 or more will be transferred within the next few days to the escrow account in the form of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, as well as a "significant" amount of cash from Garrah's bank account.
The court still hopes to receive about $10 million of GiveSendGo funds in the escrow account, as well as another $1 million of the GoFundMe funds that "Ms. Lich had in her personal account," among others, Champ said.
A Mareva injunction is a powerful legal tool that was recently used to freeze hundreds of millions of dollars in worldwide assets of a former Saudi spymaster living in Toronto, as well as the assets of a Nova Scotia contractor who allegedly defrauded the Halifax Regional Municipality and an Ontario couple of more than $130,000.
With files from Rachelle Elsiufi
'Freedom Convoy' lawsuit expands to include more Ottawa residents, new defendants
A proposed class-action lawsuit over the 'Freedom Convoy' has expanded to include more potential downtown Ottawa plaintiffs and added more defendants.
In a decision Monday, an Ontario court judge rejected an attempt by Freedom Convoy organizers to quash an updated version of the lawsuit against them and will allow the potential class-action claim to proceed.
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“There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the plaintiffs seeking remedies against the defendants who were involved in one way or another with the activities of the ‘Freedom Convoy’ and their ‘occupation’ of downtown Ottawa,” wrote Justice Calum MacLeod of the Ontario Superior Court.
His ruling rejected a motion from lawyers for some convoy organizers to strike an amended statement of claim.
That amendment filed by lawyer Paul Champ expands the boundary of potential plaintiffs to include much of Ottawa’s Lowertown neighbourhood.
The so-called "occupation zone" also includes the Rideau Centre shopping mall, which shut down during the protest, putting many employees temporarily out of work. Champ said the new boundaries now include 15,000 residents as potential plaintiffs.
The lawsuit against the organizers of the protest that occupied the city for three weeks in January and February 2022 seeks at least $290 million in damages. The lawsuit alleges residents were harmed by constant horn honking and diesel fumes, and that businesses and their workers lost income during the three-week protest in January and February last year.
"We feel pretty strong about this claim," Champ told CTV News. "It's based on some pretty sound principles in law that you can't unduly interfere with an individual's enjoyment of the peace and quiet of their home."
None of the claims in the lawsuit has been proved in court and none of the defendants has filed a statement of defence yet. The new boundaries now extend as far south as Somerset Street, west to Booth Street, north to Boteler Street and east to Friel Street.
The
new boundary for plaintiffs in the potential class-action lawsuit on
behalf of Ottawa residents and businesses against the 'Freedom Convoy'
organizers. (Courtesy Paul Champ)
Downtown Ottawa resident Zexi Li is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. Happy Goat Coffee Company, restaurant Union 613, and restaurant worker Geoffrey Devaney are also named as plaintiffs, representing the businesses and employees affected by the occupation.
Monday's ruling also allows the plaintiffs to file the amended claim that adds to the list of defendants a “donor class” of those who gave through GiveSendGo, GoFundMe or other means.
The new defendants include New Brunswick businessman Brad Howland, who donated $75,000 to the convoy protesters, and Harold Jonker, whose trucking company had at least 10 rigs parked in Ottawa, according to court documents.
Champ said those two defendants are being named as representative class defendants, to represent the truckers who parked rigs downtown and the donors to the protest.
"The vast majority of the truckers who clogged the streets of Ottawa for three weeks and were honking their horns day and night have really escaped any type of consequences up until now," Champ said.
"The way we're leading this case, anyone who was a trucker who parked in downtown Ottawa, as well as anyone who donated a significant amount of money to the protest after Feb. 4, can be liable jointly and separately for the entire amount of damages."
The class action has not yet been certified by a court, but if it is, anyone who gave money to the convoy could be potentially liable, while plaintiffs in the occupation zone could benefit.
Champ plans to seek certification of the plaintiff classes and the defendant classes later this year.
More than $5 million in convoy donations has been frozen by court order and placed in escrow pending the outcome of the litigation.
Late last year, two organizers named in the lawsuit tried to win access to $200,000 of the frozen funds to pay for their defence, but their request was denied by the court.
Champ said he feels badly for some of the people who participated in the protests, saying they were "a bit misguided" and didn't get good advice about what was appropriate conduct.
"They just held to this idea that if they were protesting, then anything they did was acceptable," he said. "With this judgment today, I think all of them should seriously go and speak to an independent lawyer about what their exposure might be and what the best way to respond might be."
MacLeod did strike out some language in the statement of claim, including the assertion that the protest in January and February last year made Ottawa “a living hell”, a statement the judge said was “not a material fact capable of proof.”
- with files from Graham Richardson, CTV News
https://lowertownecho.ca/2022/04/07/suing-the-living-hell/
Suing the “living hell”
By Juliet O’Neill
The truckers’ convoy cost Geoffrey Devaney thousands of dollars of wages and tips at his work as a restaurant server in the ByWard Market. Reliving those deafening 23 days, he recalled “anger, confusion, sadness, and a little bit of panic – should I be looking for a new job?”
Devaney, 26, is one of four representative plaintiffs in a 306-million-dollar class action lawsuit against convoy organizers, fundraisers, and truckers who made life downtown “a living hell,” to quote a document submitted to court. He represents thousands of workers, while the other named plaintiffs represent residents and businesses.
The claim, for which the next hearing is scheduled March 30, recounts how hundreds of trucks, backed by thousands of protesters, tortured residents with extreme noise and noxious fumes and how many businesses had to close or curtail operations on blockaded streets in Centretown, Lowertown and around Parliament.
A newly wed, Devaney was also embarrassed by the situation. He had excitedly promised his American spouse Mikayla that Canada was a great place to live, that like him she would love winter. Instead, his income plunged. That was on top of earnings lost during the COVID lockdown that ended just as the convoy took over downtown.
Like many others accustomed to protests in the Parliamentary Precinct, Devaney figured the protest would last one weekend at most, starting Friday Jan. 28. Instead, on Monday it took him an extra half hour to get into work and “the massive noise” of air horns and train horns seeped through the old stone walls of the restaurant, discouraging customers. “It was the same story day after day,” he said in an interview.
While he has a teaching degree for the future, Devaney has worked for a decade in restaurants and his occupation as a server “gives me joy.” He doesn’t name the restaurant to spare his employer a nasty online backlash some other businesses were subjected to after speaking against the convoy.
Devaney represents employees in the lawsuit. Zexi Li represents residents. She is a 21-year-old Centretown resident and public servant who won an injunction in court to reduce long hours of honking. The Happy Goat coffee company and Union: Local 613 restaurant represent businesses in the suit.
The lawsuit seeks $36 million for pain, suffering and psychological distress from private and public nuisance; $200 million for business losses; $60 million for lost wages; and $10 million in punitive damages.
Lawyer Paul Champ told the Echo he estimates that the ByWard Market part of the business and employee losses in the claim are about 25 per cent. The zone affected by the truckers includes the entire ByWard Market and part of Lowertown.
“As for residents, my best estimate is that there are around 2,500 people in the affected Lowertown area,” Champ said in an email. “Going by our current legal and factual analysis for potential damages for 20 days of occupation, that likely means around $10,000 in damages for Lowertown residents.”
The suit specifies the dangers to health from extremely loud air horns and train horns 12-16 hours a day and from noxious fumes of 300-500 trucks idling 24 hours per day in a congested area.
“For the approximately 12,000 residents who live closest to the protests, the non-stop blaring horns have caused unbearable torment in the sanctity of their own homes,” the claim says. “Combined with the diesel fumes, unexpected fireworks, and loud sound systems blasting music, the Freedom Convoy occupation has made downtown Ottawa a living hell for residents.”
The blocked roads, diesel fumes, and blaring horns had deterred customers and made it difficult if not impossible for many to stay open. Many employees were laid off or had shifts cancelled. Devaney’s usual six shifts were reduced to one or two per week. The worst income loss was Valentine’s Day, one of the biggest days of the year for restaurants.
Devaney said he is not resentful because he believes the convoy protesters are being misled. Still, “there needs to be accountability” and he wants to be part of making that happen. As for COVID19 vaccinations, one of the health measures the truckers were protesting, Devaney is confident “we can trust the science.”
At press time, public donations to finance the court case tallied around $80,000, with almost all of that allocated for private investigators and experts, Champ said.
“We are finalizing our agreement with the representative plaintiffs in the near future and will have more to say about our plans for fundraising in the near future, and where the money will go.”
Meanwhile the federal government opened a portal March 15 for applications for grants of up to $10,000 for businesses with fewer than 100 employees in the downtown area who were affected by the convoy.
Funds from this Downtown Ottawa Business Relief Fund are meant to cover wages, loss of inventory, utilities and other extraordinary expenses related to the repair or protection of a business due to the demonstrations. Some grants will be topped up by $5,000 by the Ontario government.
City Council passed a set of motions to assist recovery as well. They include a proposed property-tax deferral for business and restaurants; $50,000 to the ByWard Market Business Improvement Association and $25,000 to the Ottawa Markets Corporation. Another $50,000 was approved for the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition to support recovery with performances.
https://www.union613.ca/
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---------- Original message ----------
From: dana Metcalfe <danajmetcalfe@icloud.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2022 17:27:16 -0500
Subject: Re: Hey Dana I watched you and your buddies yapping in Ottwwa
for weeks and just shook my head but last night you took the cake
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Just trying to do my part ❤️
Dana Metcalfe
On 3/11/21, David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Premier of Ontario | Premier ministre de l’Ontario
> <Premier@ontario.ca>
> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2021 22:56:03 +0000
> Subject: Automatic reply: Anybody know who the Governor General is
> these days??? Methinks if Trudeau the Younger wants a writ dropped
> somebody has to do the dirty deed N'esy Pas?
> To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
>
> Thank you for your email. Your thoughts, comments and input are greatly
> valued.
>
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> ______
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> Merci pour votre courriel. Nous vous sommes très reconnaissants de
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> Merci encore pour votre courriel.
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>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Info <Info@gg.ca>
> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2021 21:26:28 +0000
> Subject: OSGG General Inquiries / Demande de renseignements généraux au
> BSGG
> To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
>
> Thank you for writing to the Office of the Secretary to the Governor
> General. We appreciate hearing your views and suggestions. Responses
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> On 3/11/21, David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
>> ---------- Original message ----------
>> From: Art.McDonald@forces.gc.ca
>> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2021 17:08:24 +0000
>> Subject: Automatic reply: YO JONATHAN.VANCE You have been ducKing e
>> since 2015 when I was running iN the election of the 42nd Parliament
>> and suing the Queen in Federal Court Methinks it is YOU who should
>> finally call me back N'esy Pas?
>> To: david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
>>
>> The Acting Chief of the Defence Staff is LGen Wayne Eyre, he may be
>> reached at wayne.eyre@forces.gc.ca.
>>
>> Le Chef d'état-major de la Défense par intérim est le LGen Wayne Eyre.
>> Il peut être rejoint au wayne.eyre@forces.gc.ca.
>>
>> Art McD
>> He/Him // Il/Lui
>> Admiral/amiral Art McDonald
>>
>> Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS)
>> Canadian Armed Forces
>> art.mcdonald@forces.gc.ca<
mailto:art.mcdonald@forces.gc.
>> 613-992-5054
>>
>> Chef d’état-major de la Defense (CÉMD)
>> Forces armées canadiennes
>> art.mcdonald@forces.gc.ca<
Lawyers representing 'Freedom Convoy' organizers sued over negligence claim
An accountant who participated in the “Freedom Convoy” is suing two lawyers who represent other protest organizers, alleging they negligently failed to warn him of the potential legal risk of his involvement.
Chad Eros, who set up a not-for-profit corporation to receive contributions to the convoy, on Tuesday launched legal action against lawyers Keith Wilson, Eva Chipiuk and the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, an Alberta-based legal charity.
His lawsuit is the latest in a series of disputes between key Freedom Convoy organizers as they try to defend a potential class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of downtown Ottawa residents and businesses.
Eros alleges in the statement-of-claim filed in Moose Jaw, Sask., that Wilson and Chipiuk failed to advise him that participating in the protest could expose him to “criminal or quasi criminal charges.”
He claims he had a solicitor-client relationship with the two lawyers, who assured him the protest was entirely legal and protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but failed to warn of the legal jeopardy.
“Mr. Wilson and Ms. Chipiuk received an internal JCCF memo which warned of considerable risk of criminal charges laid against protesters and yet they failed to advise Chad of this memo and failed to provide advice in a timely way,” the lawsuit alleges.
None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been proven in court and none of the defendants has yet filed a response. Neither Wilson, Chipiuk nor the JCCF responded to requests for comment from CTV News on Thursday.
The lawsuit alleges negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract and seeks an unspecified amount in damages.
Eros claims that Wilson initially encouraged his involvement in Freedom Corp. 2022, a federal corporation he set up to legally receive and distribute donations through crowdfunding platforms GoFundMe and GiveSendGo. He later became treasurer of the corporation.
But Eros says their relationship soured after he challenged Wilson over his request to access some of those funds to pay his legal fees to defend the lawsuit, which had put into escrow under court order.
“Mr. Wilson began to marginalize Chad and other Board members including asserting that Chad was a troublemaker,” the lawsuit says.
He was eventually removed from the Freedom Corp. 2022 board, he says.
Eros remains a defendant in the Ottawa lawsuit, along with dozens of other convoy participants, including Tamara Lich, Chris Barber and Tom Mazzaro, who are represented by Wilson.
Two other organizers named in the lawsuit, B.J. Dichter and Chris Garrah, also tried to win access to $200,000 of the frozen funds to pay for their defence but their request was denied by the court.
Downtown Ottawa resident Zexi Li is the lead plaintiff in the litigation against the convoy organizers and, potentially, financial supporters of the protest that occupied the city for three weeks in January and February.
pierrette.ringuette@sen.parl.
Senator George J. Furey
Province: Newfoundland and Labrador (Newfoundland and Labrador)
Affiliation: Non-affiliated
Telephone: 613-992-4416
Fax: 613-992-9772
Email: george.furey@sen.parl.gc.ca vCard
Staff: Cicchini, Loren; Grittner, Frédéric; Venugopal, Madison;
Ryan, Ross; Nembhard, Keean; Boukhouali, Sarah; Kealey, Sean; MacNeil,
Vince
Personal Website: http://senatorfurey.ca
Senator Patrick Brazeau
Province: Quebec (Repentigny)
Affiliation: Non-affiliated
Telephone: 613-995-8625
Fax: 613-995-8647
Email: Patrick.Brazeau@sen.parl.gc.ca vCard
Staff: Simms, Debby; Arnesto, Gloriana
Senator Larry W. Campbell
Province: British Columbia (British Columbia)
Affiliation: Canadian Senators Group
Telephone: 613-995-4050
Email: larry.campbell@sen.parl.gc.ca vCard
Staff: Ross, Pam
Personal Website: http://larrycampbell.ca/
Senator Bev Busson
Province: British Columbia (British Columbia)
Affiliation: Independent Senators Group
Telephone: 613-943-7930
Email: Bev.Busson@sen.parl.gc.ca vCard
Staff: Jones, June
Personal Website: http://bevbusson.sencanada.ca/
https://canada-unity.com/wp-
British Columbia
North
Art Meise
1-250-571-7376
77cordoba@outlook.com
Sean Tissen
1-250-666-0323
stiessen1979@gmail.com
Alberta
North
Pat King
1-306-421-2455
patrickking@canada-unity.com
South
James Bauder
1-403-701-6453
james@canada-unity.com
Saskatchewan
Chris Barber
1-306-774-4330
novaxpass@outlook.com
Ryan Mihilewicz
1-306-961-1210
Manitoba
Joe Jansen
1-204-312-8399
British Columbia
North
Pamela Rouse
1-250-600-7223
Art Meise
1-251-981-4250
77cordoba@outlook.com
South
Colin Valentim
1-205-571-7376
Sean Tissen
1-250-666-0323
stiessen1979@gmail.com
Ontario
Western
Tim
1-705-256-9253
North/East
Jason LaFace
1-249-878-4959
jlaface@gmail.com
Ottawa
keepcanada@protonmail.com
Janet Seto
janetseto@protonmail.com
Kingston
Tracy Henderson
1-416-305-6273
brown_tm3@yahoo.ca
Jennifer Maleida
1-613-331-0521
Toronto
Dave Steenburg
1-647-703-4148
davesteenburg269@gmail.com
Brandon Austin
1-437-993-7436
Sarnia
Bridgitte Belton
1-678-778-6992
Cornwall
Andrew Dier
1-613-346-7176
Niagara
Fort Erie
Harold Jonker
1-905-961-1508
harold@jonkertrucking.com
Andy Draaistra
1-905-971-4926
andyjohanna01@hotmail.com
Niagara on the Lake
John Doppenberg
1-905-246-3218
johndoppeberg@icloud.com
Newfoundland
Dana Metcalfe
1-709-771-0210
danajmetcalfe@icloud.com
P.E.I.
Dr. Laura Braden
1-902-969-4689
Nova Scotia
Martin Brodmann
1-902-529-0465
martin@canada-unity.com
New Brunswick
Leanne Carter
1-902-669-0738
leannemb@protonmail.com
Quebec
Joanie Pelchat
1-438-622-9538
joaniebpelchat@icloud.com
Created January 14, 2022
Delta BC Rollout Jan 23
To our Fellow Canadians, the time for political over reach is over.
Our current government is implementing rules and mandates that are
destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries and
livelihoods. Canadians have been integral to the fabric of humanity
in many ways that have shaped the planet.
We are a peaceful country that has helped protect nations across the
globe from Tyrannical governments who oppressed their people, well now
its happening to us. We are taking our fight to the doorsteps of our
Federal Government and demanding that they cease all mandates against
its people. Small businesses are being destroyed, homes are being
destroyed, and people are being mistreated and denied fundamental
necessities to survive. It's our duty as Canadians to put an end to
this mandates. It is imperative that this happens because if we don't
our country will no longer be the country we have come to love. We are
doing this for our future Generations and to regain our lives back.
We are asking for Donations to help with the costs of fuel, food and
lodgings to help ease the pressures of this arduous task.
But it's a small price to pay for our freedoms. We thank you all for
your Donations and know that you are helping reshape this once
beautiful country back to the way it was.
Organizer
Tamara Lich
Organizer
Medicine Hat, AB
403-977-6460 tdundas10@gmail.com
Tamara Lich and B.J. Dichter are organizing this fundraiser.
To our Fellow Canadians, the time for political over reach is over.
Our current government is implementing rules and mandates that are
destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries and
livelihoods. Canadians have been integral to the fabric of humanity
in many ways that have shaped the planet.
We are a peaceful country that has helped protect nations across the
globe from tyrannical governments who oppressed their people, and now
it seems it is happening here. We are taking our fight to the
doorsteps of our Federal Government and demanding that they cease all
mandates against its people. Small businesses are being destroyed,
homes are being destroyed, and people are being mistreated and denied
fundamental necessities to survive. It's our duty as Canadians to put
an end to this mandates. It is imperative that this happens because
if we don't our country will no longer be the country we have come to
love. We are doing this for our future Generations and to regain our
lives back.
We are asking for Donations to help with the costs of fuel first, and
hopefully food and lodgings to help ease the pressures of this arduous
task.
It's a small price to pay for our freedoms. We thank you all for your
Donations and know that you are helping reshape this once beautiful
country back to the way it was.
In order for your generous donations to flow smoothly, the good people
at Go Fund Me will be sending donations directly to our bulk fuel
supplier and are working out the details now which means your hard
earned money is going to straight to who it was meant for and need not
flow through anyone else. Any left over donations will be donated to
a credible Veterans organization which will be chosen by the donors.
**Money raised will be dispersed to our Truckers to aid them with the
cost of the journey**
**Funds will be spent to help cover the cost of fuel for our Truckers
first and foremost, will be used to assist with food if needed and
contribute to shelter if needed**
Updates (1)
Today by B.J. Dichter, Team member
Thank you everyone for your love and overwhelming support. We wish we
could thank all of you in person but hopefully we will get to meet
many of you in Ottawa. To the rest of you, we send you our love and
gratitude.
We will be engaging with media directly in the coming days. Patrick
King is not and never has been affiliated with our movement nor has he
been a part of our great team of volunteers. Patrick King only
represents himself and does not represent any of us who started
Freedom Convoy 2022 / Freedom Convoy Canada.
The only spokespeople for Freedom Convoy are Tamara Lich Twitter:
@Tamara_MVC and Benjamin Dichter Twitter: @BJdichter.
We will have more updates soon. Thank you again for your love and support.
DonateShare
Fundraising team (2)
Tamara Lich
Organizer
Raised $15,525 from 202 donations
Medicine Hat, AB
B.J. Dichter
Team member
Raised $917 from 21 donations
This team raised $4,713,642 from 60922 other donations.
NEWS RELEASE
Notice of Formal Withdrawal of MOU by Canada Unity
Ottawa February 8 2022 – For Immediate Release
It has come to the attention of Canada Unity that the Memorandum Of
Understanding (herein referred to as MOU) does not reflect the spirit
and intent of the Freedom Convoy Movement 2022
We represent the voice of many Canadians who desire to have the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms upheld. We are everyday Canadians, not
lawyers or politicians.
We are immediately withdrawing the MOU as we do not want any
unintended interpretations to continue. Our sole desire with the MOU
was to have a document where Canadians could peacefully express their
displeasure with current C19 mandates, and express their desire to be
free. Canada Unity does not support or encourage any acts which
tarnish democratic values held by Canadians.
To the over 320,000 original signatories of the MOU; we appreciate
your support and will continue to peacefully demonstrate until the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms is upheld.
This document was created with the sole purpose of bringing the
government of Canada and all Canadian citizens into agreement; that
the Charter of Rights and Freedoms should be upheld for all
Canada Unity firmly supports the constitution and democratic process.
We remain committed to following lawful process and upholding freedom
of choice.
Canada Unity
James Bauder
Sandra Bauder
Brigitte Belton - Ontario Party Candidate for Elgin-Middlesex-London | Rogers tv
RE Trudeau Invoking the Emergency Act
Moore, Rob - M.P.<Rob.Moore@parl.gc.ca> | Mon, Sep 11, 2023 at 9:11 PM |
| To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> | |
*This is an automated response*
Thank you for contacting the Honourable Rob Moore, P.C., M.P. office. We appreciate the time you took to get in touch with our office.
If you did not already, please ensure to include your full contact details on your email and the appropriate staff will be able to action your request. We strive to ensure all constituent correspondence is responded to in a timely manner.
If your question or concern is time sensitive, please call our office: 506-832-4200.
Again, we thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Office of the Honourable Rob Moore, P.C., M.P. Member of Parliament for Fundy Royal
| |
Premier of Ontario | Premier ministre de l’Ontario<Premier@ontario.ca> | Mon, Sep 11, 2023 at 9:13 PM |
| To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> | |
Thank you for your email. Your thoughts, comments and input are greatly valued.
You can be assured that all emails and letters are carefully read, reviewed and taken into consideration.
There may be occasions when, given the issues you have raised and the need to address them effectively, we will forward a copy of your correspondence to the appropriate government official. Accordingly, a response may take several business days.
Thanks again for your email. ______
Merci pour votre courriel. Nous vous sommes très reconnaissants de nous avoir fait part de vos idées, commentaires et observations.
Nous tenons à vous assurer que nous lisons attentivement et prenons en considération tous les courriels et lettres que nous recevons.
Dans certains cas, nous transmettrons votre message au ministère responsable afin que les questions soulevées puissent être traitées de la manière la plus efficace possible. En conséquence, plusieurs jours ouvrables pourraient s’écouler avant que nous puissions vous répondre.
Merci encore pour votre courriel. | |
Carr, Jim - M.P.<Jim.Carr@parl.gc.ca> | Thu, Feb 17, 2022 at 12:56 PM |
| To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> | |
Thank you for emailing the Office of the Honourable Jim Carr, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South Centre. We read all correspondence and make every effort to respond in a timely fashion. Please note, however, due to the high volume of emails received, we typically do not respond to forrm letters and correspondence from outside of Winnipeg South Centre. To help us recognize the mail that is from constituents, please provide your full name, postal code and phone number. COVID-19 INFORMATION During this period of the pandemic, MP Jim Carr and his team remain available to help with your federal government inquiries. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, we are providing service via telephone and email; and the constituency office is closed to the public. To get the latest information concerning COVID-19, we invite you to consult these links:
·
Government of Canada:
https://www.canada.ca/
·
World Health Organization:
https://www.who.int/
·
Government of Manitoba:
https://www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/
·
City of Winnipeg:
https://www.winnipeg.ca/ DO YOU NEED ASSISTANCE? SUPPORT FOR INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES:
Since the beginning of
the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada has put Canadians first,
providing the support they need to continue to make ends meet while
staying safe and healthy.
BORDER MEASURES AND TRAVEL:
Find out if you can enter Canada:
https://travel.gc.ca/travel- CANADIANS ABROAD
Please make sure you are registered on the
Global Affairs Canada website to get all the latest information.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Telephone: 613-992-9475
Constituency Office - Winnipeg
Telephone: 204-983-1355
Online Best regards,
Office of Hon. Jim Carr, PC MP | |
David Amos<david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> | Mon, Sep 11, 2023 at 9:11 PM |
| To: roadwarriornews@rogers.com, pm <pm@pm.gc.ca>, premier <premier@ontario.ca>, Sean.Fraser@parl.gc.ca, "rob.moore" <rob.moore@parl.gc.ca> | |
| Cc: motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com> | |
Convoy organizer Brigitte Belton’s mic drop: “Bodily autonomy. It is mine, not my government’s”
South-western Ontario Trucker Brigette Belton was one of the first convoy organizers. She testified that her group’s plans involved “slow rolling” across the province and it was not their intention to disrupt the lives of Ottawa residents. Belton’s testimony has been among the most rivetting sessions the Commission has heard as she was able to answer many questions the police executives were not. Photo: POEC
“I’m sorry. I draw the line when my government wants to throw something into my body I cannot remove. That is where I draw the line: bodily autonomy. It is mine. It is not my government’s.”
BRIGITTE BELTON, POEC, November 1st
Convoy organizer and professional Trucker Brigette Belton may have summarized the Freedom Convoy’s mission and purpose in two words: bodily autonomy.
Belton’s testimony before the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) on November 1st was packed full of detail an information which was unavailable to the numerous police executives who have spoken to the POEC to date. The Commission has heard from several of the Convoy organizers including Chris Barber and Steeve Charland.
The transcript below represents the portion of Belton’s testimony in response to questionner Paul Champ’s question, “Is there anything else you would like to tell the Commission about what happened while you were in Ottawa?”
Belton’s reply:
“I just want everybody to know that we weren’t there to disrupt the city residents, we were there to be heard.
I had given 32 emails, approximately, to MPs and MPPs. 32. Not one of them did anything for me.
I followed how things are supposed to go: you first go, and you complain. You try again. You try again.
And when CBSA sent me a reply, pretty much ‘Suck it up, buttercup, this is the way it’s gonna go. And you’re about to lose your job. So don’t worry about it.’
What did you want me to do? Sit down, lie down, lose everything be over a mandate that was really no longer in effect in the US?
That’s what my country was asking from me. That’s what Canadians that were supporting vaccine mandates were asking of me: to lose everything. Because they were afraid.
Because our government did a very good job at scaring people, making them so afraid that today’s still wearing face masks – many of us here are not.
That propaganda hurt our country. And having our prime minister saying that “there will be consequences for the unvaccinated and we don’t want them sitting beside our children on planes and trains and automobiles.”
And the amount of…I’m trying to control my anger over this gentleman, but the wording that he used was division, the whole time. Pit one person against another, shamed them, make them comply. And if they don’t, they will.
I’m sorry. I draw the line when my government wants to throw something into my body I cannot remove. That is where I draw the line: bodily autonomy. It is mine. It is not my government’s.”
---------- Original message ----------
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 12:56:38 -0400
Subject: RE Trudeau Invoking the Emergency Act
To: justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca, David.Yurdiga@parl.gc.ca,
Michael.Kram@parl.gc.ca, Luc.Berthold@parl.gc.ca,
Bernard.Genereux@parl.gc.ca, Joel.Godin@parl.gc.ca,
jacques.gourde@parl.gc.ca, Richard.Lehoux@parl.gc.ca,
info@peoplespartyofcanada.ca, Richard.Martel@parl.gc.ca,
Pierre.Paul-Hus@parl.gc.ca, Alain.Rayes@parl.gc.ca,
mrisdon@westernstandardonline.
lettertoeditor@epochtimes.com, newsdesk@epochtimes.com,
ottawa@epochtimes.com, calgary.ca@epochtimes.com,
wendy.tiong@epochtimes.com, oldmaison <oldmaison@yahoo.com>, jbosnitch
<jbosnitch@gmail.com>, "darrow.macintyre" <darrow.macintyre@cbc.ca>,
newsroom@ntdtv.com, feedback@ntdtv.com, jenny.chang@ntdtv.com,
joe.wang@ntdtv.com, bgrant@thehill.com, nacharya
<nacharya@thehill.com>, Peggy.Regimbal@bellmedia.ca,
patrickking@canada-unity.com, james@canada-unity.com,
novaxpass@outlook.com, martin@canada-unity.com, tdundas10@gmail.com,
jlaface@gmail.com, davesteenburg269@gmail.com, brown_tm3@yahoo.ca,
leannemb <leannemb@protonmail.com>, harold@jonkertrucking.com,
keepcanada@protonmail.com, andyjohanna01@hotmail.com,
janiebpelchat@icloud.com, janetseto@protonmail.com,
johndoppenberg@icloud.com, stiessen1979@gmail.com,
77cordoba@outlook.com, pierrette.ringuette@sen.parl.
Patrick.Brazeau@sen.parl.gc.ca
larry.campbell@sen.parl.gc.ca, Bev.Busson@sen.parl.gc.ca,
info@lionelmedia.com, liveneedtoknow@gmail.com, tips@steeltruth.com,
media@steeltruth.com, press@deepcapture.com, washington field
<washington.field@ic.fbi.gov>, bbachrach <bbachrach@bachrachlaw.net>,
"Bill.Blair" <Bill.Blair@parl.gc.ca>, "barbara.massey"
<barbara.massey@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Norman Traversy <traversy.n@gmail.com>, news <news@dailygleaner.com>,
nobyrne <nobyrne@unb.ca>, tracy@uncoverdc.com, James@jamesfetzer.com,
editor@americanthinker.com, nharris@maverick-media.ca, nouvelle
<nouvelle@acadienouvelle.com>, news-tips <news-tips@nytimes.com>,
danajmetcalfe@icloud.com, lauralynnlive@protonmail.com
Cc: Jaime.Battiste@parl.gc.ca, Kody.Blois@parl.gc.ca,
Andy.Fillmore@parl.gc.ca, motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>,
Darren.Fisher@parl.gc.ca, Sean.Fraser@parl.gc.ca,
Bernadette.Jordan@parl.gc.ca, Mike.Kelloway@parl.gc.ca,
Darrell.Samson@parl.gc.ca, Lenore.Zann@parl.gc.ca, "heather.bradley"
<heather.bradley@parl.gc.ca>, geoff.regan@parl.gc.ca,
kelly@kellyregan.ca, Michael.Duffy@sen.parl.gc.ca,
Sean.Casey@parl.gc.ca, Robert.Morrissey@parl.gc.ca,
lawrence.macaulay@parl.gc.ca, "Furey, John" <jfurey@nbpower.com>,
wharrison <wharrison@nbpower.com>, "Mike.Comeau" <Mike.Comeau@gnb.ca>,
"Holland, Mike (LEG)" <mike.holland@gnb.ca>,
Gudie.Hutchings@parl.gc.ca, Yvonne.Jones@parl.gc.ca,
Ken.McDonald@parl.gc.ca, Seamus.ORegan@parl.gc.ca,
Churence.Rogers@parl.gc.ca, scott.simms@parl.gc.ca,
Jim.Carr@parl.gc.ca, Dan.Vandal@parl.gc.ca,
kevin.lamoureux@parl.gc.ca, Terry.Duguid@parl.gc.ca,
Larry.Bagnell@parl.gc.ca, Michael.McLeod@parl.gc.ca
https://www.bitchute.com/
February 14 Brian Peckford Presser - Complete
First published at 19:11 UTC on February 15th, 2022.
#BrianPeckford #TamaraLich
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February 14 Brian Peckford Presser - Complete
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TBOF’s Press Conference in Response To Trudeau Invoking the Emergency Act
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Alberta lawyer files complaint against Pfizer
The statement says the US FDA briefing “fraudulently and misleadingly
does not discuss or acknowledge any other potential causes of death.”
mm
Published 3 months ago
on November 19, 2021
By Melanie Risdon
https://www.facebook.com/
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