(OTTAWA) The ‘Freedom Convoy’ benefited from leaks from law enforcement just as hundreds of trucks froze in downtown Ottawa. Keith Wilson, a lawyer representing the convoy’s organizers, confirmed this information during cross-examination on Wednesday at the Commission on State of Emergency.
Posted at 12:09 pm
Updated at 1:02 p.m.
“You are getting information from friendly police [à votre cause] ? asked Paul Champ, an advocate for downtown Ottawa residents and businesses. “Yes, that’s true,” said M.e Wilson.
Ex-police officers, ex-soldiers and ex-intelligence agents who participated in the demonstration in Ottawa were given this privileged information. “Many of them had contacts and were informed,” reads his witness statement filed as evidence.
“Wilson did not know the sources, but the Freedom Convoy was receiving leaked information from law enforcement. It appeared that the police eventually caught up and began counterfeiting operations to destabilize the Freedom Convoy participants and test where the leaks were coming from,” reads a document prepared with excerpts from interviews he gave to prosecutors for his testimony. .
In this show, there were many criticisms on the behavior of the police officers. Some officials were seen taking pictures with the attendees and encouraging them by clapping. An intelligence report prepared by Ottawa police prior to the truck convoy’s arrival described the protesters as middle-class people, not professional protesters.
Police initially expected to stay over the weekend. Thousands of trucks arrived in the federal capital from January 28 and paralyzed the city center for three weeks.
Survived the crisis
Organizers of the “Freedom Convoy” were trying to defuse the crisis in the days before the massive police operation that put an end to their activities. Their lawyer, Keith Wilson, testified Wednesday that they want to clear all streets in downtown Ottawa and concentrate the trucks on Wellington Street in front of Parliament and stay as long as necessary.
Negotiations are underway with the City of Ottawa to clear residential streets. For the organizers of the truck convoy, the idea was to focus the demonstration on the federal government. The “Freedom Convoy” was originally created to oppose the vaccination obligation imposed on truckers for cross-border travel.
Me Wilson states that the idea is to demonstrate that managers are acting in good faith. Their hope is to meet with ministers in Justin Trudeau’s government, but not the prime minister himself. They believed it would give a cause to the protesters who have paralyzed the federal capital city center for the past few weeks.
Power struggles between all sorts of groups undermined the organization of the “Freedom Convoy”. The movement attracted conspiracy theorists “like a flame attracts moths”. He said several groups are pushing for control of his client Tamara Licht, one of the organizers of the truck convoy, or to get their share of the 10 million raised through the crowdfunding campaign.
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