Prince Albert freedom convoy was more like a parade

“It’s going to be absolutely huge,” Sproull said. “There’s 36,000 trucks registered throughout the country plus the thousands coming in from the U.S. if they can get across the border. Plus, there’s doctors, nurses, firemen, policemen. The truckers started it, but this is a movement for Canadians. They’ve had enough.”

Despite statements that the protest was to be peaceful, controversy erupted early on in Ottawa over an alleged incident in which convoy members (not from Prince Albert) were said to have harassed a food bank and taken food.

After a week of the protest blocking access to Ottawa’s downtown, a resident of the area got a court injunction to stop what she said was continuous honking that stopped her from sleeping.

Other residents said they were harassed for wearing masks or that the presence of the vehicles stopped them from doing things like going to doctor appointments.

Mihilewicz spoke to paNOW from Ottawa, saying that some of the information about the convoy was misinformation.

He noted that there were drivers still honking their horns but they were not part of the crowd brought down for the protest.

“So there’s been a lot of misinformation about us but we also have a lot of support from people that are here on the ground,” he said.

It was later learned during the public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act that St. Brieux businessman Joseph Bourgault, owner of Bourgault Tillage, paid for the hotel rooms for multiple members of the convoy’s leadership group.

Bourgault is also part of the Canadians For Truth, Freedom and Justice group and in the same year made a bid to be a leader of the federal Conservative Party. His run ended when his candidacy papers were deemed not complete by the Party.

The protests in Ottawa continued for almost a month ending with the forceful removal of the remnant trucks and following the removal of several international border blockades in Winsor and Coutts, Alberta, Emerson, Manitoba, and Surrey, BC.

The blockades cost the economy almost $4 billion in trade.

The convoy itself ended in the third week of February with the inaugural invocation of the Emergencies Act, which allowed police to force tow trucks to remove the vehicles in Ottawa.

Tow truck operators said they were afraid of reprisals and their company names were blanked out during the action.

Provincial proof of vaccination mandates in Saskatchewan ended on February 8 and the federal proof of vaccination to cross the international border ended Oct. 1.

Ottawa police said that 191 people were arrested, 79 vehicles were towed and 389 criminals laid on 107 people.

Mihilewicz is named in the class action lawsuit filed by Zexi Li, the Ottawa resident who got the court injunction stopping the horns.

The suit claimed harm to the residents and businesses of downtown Ottawa and resulted in a judge placing about $6 million of the money raised through crowdfunding into an escrow account until the suit is resolved. Some of the money came from area businesses or people.

Some supporters continued doing their own freedom protests in Prince Albert after the event in Ottawa ended.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Prince Albert freedom convoy was more like a parade

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