MONTREAL — Pat King, who was one of the spokespeople for the 2022 “Freedom Convoy,” was convicted Nov. 22 by Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland of five frame-up criminal charges, including mischief and disobeying a court order. The convoy was a movement of hundreds of Canadian truckers and thousands of their supporters demanding an end to job-threatening government-imposed COVID-19 mandates.
This conviction, based primarily on videotapes King made describing his participation in the convoy and broadcast on social media, amounts to an attack on the right to freedom of speech and expression. It strengthens Ottawa’s drive to reduce the political space working people need to organize and protest government policies carried out in the interests of Canada’s ruling capitalist families.
His sentencing is set for Jan. 16. King could face up to 10 years in prison. Government prosecutors are calling for “significant” prison time. King says he is considering an appeal.
On more serious charges of intimidation and obstructing the police, the court found King not guilty.
King’s arrest came the day after that of two other prominent convoy spokespersons, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber. They are awaiting a verdict in their joint trial, which ended in September after lasting over a year. The judge gave herself six months to render a verdict.
King, Lich and Barber were arrested after Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked, for the first time ever, the draconian new Emergencies Act. He used the trumped-up pretext that the three-week camp-in of convoy members with their rigs in downtown Ottawa, backed by solidarity blockades at several Canada-U.S. border crossings, had created a “national public order emergency.”
A federal court judge ruled in January that Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act was unjustified and illegal, saying the action violated rights listed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Ottawa used the Emergencies Act to mobilize 3,000 heavily armed police to crush the protest, arrested some 200 participants, banned demonstrations and gatherings, and froze the bank accounts of hundreds of protesters, including the ones of King, Lich and Barber.
The “evidence” presented by the prosecution in their trials centers on what they said— not on anything they did.
On his release from custody last July, King was hit with extremely strict bail conditions, a further violation of his right to free speech. He is forbidden from using social media in any form, except to appeal for donations, in which he cannot mention the convoy or any “other commentary.” No one else is allowed to post on his behalf. He is prohibited from participating in demonstrations or public protests, or from communicating with Lich, Barber or any other Freedom Convoy leaders.